Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Rises 100 Points; Gold Surges 2.5%

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq adding 100 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded up 0.39% to 32,946.58 while the NASDAQ rose 0.78% to 12,931.15. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.29% to 4,213.17.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed by 2.4% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Porch Group, Inc. PRCH, up 15% and Shift Technologies, Inc. SFT up 14%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

DICK'S Sporting Goods, Inc. DKS reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Dick's Sporting Goods posted quarterly earnings of $3.64 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $3.43 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $3.35 billion, versus expectations of $3.29 billion.

Dick's said it expects FY22 adjusted EPS of $11.70 to $13.10, versus analysts’ estimates of $15.42.

Equities Trading UP

Enservco Corporation ENSV shares shot up 91% to $4.77 after jumping around 85% on Monday.

Shares of Nine Energy Service, Inc. NINE got a boost, shooting 51% to 5.42 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

PBF Energy Inc. PBF shares were also up, gaining 21% to $23.97 after B of A Securities upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Inspirato Incorporated ISPO shares tumbled 41% to $15.82 after dipping 37% on Monday.

Shares of Alector, Inc. ALEC were down 12% to $13.11. Stifel downgraded Alector from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $32 to $18.

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. BNED was down, falling 18% to $3.9350 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 sales results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.9% to $124.05, while gold traded up 2.5% to $2,046.30.

Silver traded up 4.2% Tuesday to $26.80 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.7285.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.51%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.07%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index jumped 1.82%. The German DAX slipped 0.02%, French CAC 40 fell 0.32% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.80%.

Industrial production in Spain increased 1.7% year-over-year in January versus a 1.3% rise in December, while industrial production in Germany rose 2.7% mom in January. Retail sales in the UK increased 2.7% year-over-year on a like-for-like basis during February. Retail sales in Italy dropped 0.5% from a month ago in January.

 

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index fell to 95.7 in February from 97.1 in January.

The US trade deficit increased to a record high of $89.7 billion in January versus a revised $82 billion gap in the previous month. Exports from the US fell by 1.7%, while imports to the US rise 1.2%.

Wholesale inventories rose 0.8% to $799.9 billion in January.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 80,979,970 cases with around 985,910 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,971,300 cases and 515,240 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,069,460 COVID-19 cases with 652,410 deaths. In total, there were at least 448,234,960 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,027,670 deaths.