Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Gain; AutoZone Earnings Beat Views

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.14% to 34,017.77 while the NASDAQ rose 0.39% to 14,771.47. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.18% to 4,365.67.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 42,289,820 cases with around 676,090 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,504,530 cases and 445,380 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,247,660 COVID-19 cases with 590,950 deaths. In total, there were at least 229,132,900 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,701,330 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares rose 0.5% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included AMREP Corporation AXR, up 3% and Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. XIN up 3%.

In trading on Tuesday, industrials shares fell 0.6%.

Top Headline

AutoZone, Inc. AZO reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Tuesday.

AutoZone reported quarterly earnings of $35.72 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $29.87 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at 4.90 billion, exceeding estimates of $4.56 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Helbiz, Inc. HLBZ shares shot up 162% to $37.62. Helbiz Media, the media arm of Helbiz announced a deal with Amazon Italy, a unit of Amazon.com.

Shares of Spire Global, Inc. SPIR got a boost, shooting 31% to $16.97. Spire Global recently announced plans to acquire exactEarth for $161.2 million.

Inotiv, Inc. NOTV shares were also up, gaining 22% to $45.08 after the company announced plans to purchase Envigo.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Edesa Biotech, Inc. EDSA shares tumbled 20% to $9.48 on profit-taking after the stock rallied over 100% yesterday.

Shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRCA were down 18% to $9.91 after the company announced the FDA issued a Complete Response Letter regarding its New Drug Application for VP-102 for the treatment of molluscum contagiosum.

RBC Bearings Incorporated ROLL was down, falling 14% to $185.10 after the company announced a common stock offering of 3 million shares and $400 million in aggregate liquidation preference of series A mandatory convertible preferred stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $71.31, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,767.50.

Silver traded up 1.5% Tuesday to $22.525 while copper rose 1.2% to $4.1625.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1% and the German DAX 30 gained 1.4%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.1%, French CAC 40 jumped 1.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB climbed 1.1%.

Public sector net borrowing in the UK fell to GBP 20.5 billion in August, GBP 5.5 billion less than a year ago.

Economics

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

Housing starts rose 3.9% to an annual rate of 1.615 million units in August, while building permits increased 6.0% to 1.728 million.

The current account gap increased to $190 billion in the second quarter from a revised $89 billion gap in the previous period.

The Treasury is set to auction 20-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here