Dow Surges 500 Points; Johnson & Johnson Lowers Guidance

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 500 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded up 1.64% to 31,581.59while the NASDAQ rose 2.11% to 11,599.41. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.86% to 3,902.02.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares rose 2.7% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. WFG, up 19% and Aspen Aerogels, Inc. ASPN up 8%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares rose by just 1.1%.

Top Headline

Johnson & Johnson JNJ reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter, but lowered its FY22 outlook.

The company reported Q2 FY22 adjusted earnings of $2.59 per share, up 4.4% Y/Y and slightly ahead of the consensus of $2.57. Net sales increased 3% Y/Y (8% on an operational basis) to $24.02 billion, marginally beating the consensus of $23.81 billion.

Johnson & Johnson said it expects FY22 adjusted EPS of $10.00 - $10.10, lower than the prior forecast of $10.15 - $10.35. The consensus estimate is $10.27. The company expects sales of $93.3 billion – $94.3 billion, compared to the previous guidance of $94.8 billion to $95.8 billion, versus the consensus of $96.04 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. APLS shares shot up 25% to $55.93 after the company announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted and granted priority review designation for the new drug application for Pegcetacoplan.

Shares of Applied Blockchain, Inc. APLD got a boost, shooting 49% to $1.5820 after the company reported a 200-megawatt five-year hosting contract with Marathon Digital Holdings and raised its Q4 revenue forecast.

Altamira Therapeutics Ltd. CYTO shares were also up, gaining 32% to $0.6168 after the company announced its SemaPhore platform has shown to be particularly effective in intracellular mRNA delivery for cancer therapy.

Equities Trading DOWN

VIQ Solutions Inc. VQS shares tumbled 15% to $1.15 after the company announced a $4.8 million private placement priced at $1.35 per unit.

Shares of High Tide Inc. HITI were down 22% to $1.63 after the company reported a C$10 million "bought deal" public offering..

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. RARE was down, falling 17% to $50.54. Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical and GeneTx Biotherapeutics LLC announced interim data from the Phase 1/2 study in pediatric patients with a genetically confirmed diagnosis of full maternal UBE3A gene deletion.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $102.54, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,709.40.

Silver traded down 0.7% to $18.71 on Tuesday while copper fell 1.7% to $3.2885.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 1.15%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.93% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 2.07%. The German DAX gained 2.23%, French CAC 40 rose 1.56% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 2.21%.

Construction output in the Eurozone rose 2.9% year-over-year in May, following a revised 2.8% increase in the prior month. Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone was confirmed at a record high level of 8.6% in June up from 8.1% in May.

The unemployment rate in the UK came in steady at 3.8% in the three months to May, while average weekly earnings including bonuses rose 6.2% year-over-year to GBP 601.

Economics

U.S. housing starts fell 2% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.559 million units in June, the lowest since September 2021. Building permits, meanwhile, dropped 0.6% to an annualized rate of 1.685 million in June, the weakest level since September last year.

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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 91,429,400 cases with around 1,049,270 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,783,060 cases and 525,780 deaths, while Brazil reported over 33,339,810 COVID-19 cases with 675,550 deaths. In total, there were at least 568,854,080 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,389,770 deaths.