Mid-Afternoon Market Update: TrueBlue Rises Following Q1 Earnings; RealNetworks Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.02% to 33,975.58 while the NASDAQ fell 0.34% to 14,090.03. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.05% to 4,185.36.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,125,470 cases with around 572,690 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 17,636,180 cases and 197,890 deaths, while Brazil reported over 14,369,420 COVID-19 cases with 391,930 deaths. In total, there were at least 147,925,410 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,122,310 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Industrials shares climbed by 0.7% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TrueBlue, Inc. TBI, up 28%, and Covenant Logistics Group, Inc. CVLG, up 12%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

General Electric Company GE reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed views

GE reported quarterly earnings of $0.03 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.01 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $17.12 billion, versus expectations of $17.59 billion.

GE said it expects 2021 adjusted earnings of $0.15 to $0.25 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Tian Ruixiang Holdings Ltd TIRX shares shot up 82% to $21.86 after the company reported its financial results for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020.

Shares of TrueBlue, Inc. TBI got a boost, shooting 28% to $29.50 following Q1 results. The company swung to a profit during the quarter.

Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc. ALDX shares were also up, gaining 34% to $14.90 after the company announced positive top-line results from the Phase 3 INVIGORATE study of 0.25% reproxalap ophthalmic solution, an investigational new drug, in patients with allergic conjunctivitis. The clinical trial successfully achieved statistical significance for the primary endpoint and all secondary endpoints, it added.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Protagenic Therapeutics, Inc. PTIX shares tumbled 26% to $2.28 after the company priced an underwritten public offering of 3.18 million units at a public offering price of $4.15 per unit for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $13.2 million. In connection with the offering, the company has received approval to list its common stock and warrants on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Shares of RealNetworks, Inc. RNWK were down 25% to $2.5499 after the company priced 8.25 million shares at $2.7 per share to raise $22.3 million in a secondary public offering.

PQ Group Holdings Inc. PQG was down, falling 14% to $14.42 after the company reported preliminary Q1 results and announced a secondary offering of 12,500,000 shares of common stock by selling shareholders.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $62.53, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,778.00.

Silver traded up 0.7% Tuesday to $26.39 while copper rose 1.2% to $4.4935.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.08%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.63% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.31%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.03% London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.26% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.17%.

Italy's manufacturing confidence index climbed to 105.4 in April from a revised reading of 101.9 in the previous month, while consumer confidence index surged to 102.3 from 100.9.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day policy meeting today.

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index surged 11.9% year-over-year in February following a 11.1% increase in January .

The FHFA house price index increased 0.9% in February following a 1% rise in January.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index jumped to 121.7 from March’s reading of 109.7.

The Richmond Fed manufacturing index came in unchanged at 17 in April.

Check out the full economic calendar here