Nasdaq Drops Over 100 Points; Walmart Issues Cautious Forecast

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping more than 100 points on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, The Dow traded down 1.15% to 33,438.86 while the NASDAQ fell 1.24% to 11,640.85. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.03% to 4,037.11.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose around 0.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. HLX, up 17%, and Borr Drilling Limited BORR, up 4%.
• In trading on Tuesday, consumer discretionary shares dipped by 2%.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc WMT reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, but issued weak outlook.

The company posted fourth-quarter FY23 sales growth of 7.3% year-on-year to $164 billion, beating the consensus of $159.8 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.71 beat the consensus of $1.51.

Walmart sees a Q1 FY24 net sales growth of 4.5% - 5.0% at CC (consensus $146.70 billion) and adjusted EPS $1.25 - $1.30 (consensus $1.36).

Equities Trading UP

• Harbor Custom Development, Inc. HCDI shares shot up 60% to $0.56 after the company said it has contracted to sell mills Crossing townhomes for $14.25 million.
• Shares of Arbe Robotics Ltd. ARBE got a boost, shooting 56% to $6.80. Arbe Robotics is expected to report its financial results for the fourth quarter on Thursday, March 2, 2023.
• Mobilicom Limited MOB shares were also up, gaining 48% to $2.30 after the company announced it has entered a strategic partnership with Mistral, a prime contractor for the US Department of Defense.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Aileron Therapeutics, Inc. ALRN shares tumbled 39% to $1.46 after the company announced termination of Phase 1b breast cancer chemoprotection trial and exploration of strategic alternatives.
• Shares of CVRx, Inc. CVRX were down 30% to $11.99 after the company reported preliminary results of the BeAT-HF post-market randomized clinical trial.
• OKYO Pharma Limited OKYO was down, falling 24% to $2.86 after surging 58% on Friday. OKYO Pharma, during December, announced U.S. FDA clearance of IND application for OK-101 for the treatment of dry eye disease.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $76.79 while gold traded down 0.3% at $1,844.20.

Silver traded up 0.5% to $21.815 on Tuesday while copper rose 2.5% to $4.2115.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.4%. The German DAX declined 0.3% French CAC 40 fell 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.4%.

The S&P Global Eurozone services PMI climbed to 53.0 in February versus 50.8 in January, while manufacturing slipped fell to 48.5 in February from 48.8. Passenger car registrations in the European Union jumped 11.3% from a year ago to 760,041 units in January.

The S&P Global France composite PMI climbed to 51.6 in February from 49.1 a month ago, while Germany composite PMI increased to 51.1 in February from 49.9. The S&P Global/CIPS manufacturing PMI for the UK rose to 49.2 in February from 47 in the previous month, while services PMI increased to 53.3 from 48.7.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.21%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.71% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.49%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.02%.

The au Jibun Bank Japanese services PMI rose to 53.6 in February versus 52.3 in the prior month, while manufacturing PMI declined to 47.4 in February from a final reading of 48.9. The Judo Bank Australian Composite PMI rose to 49.2 in February versus 48.5 a month ago.

Economics

• The S&P Global manufacturing PMI for the US rose to 47.8 in February from 46.9 in the previous month.
• The S&P Global composite PMI climbed to 50.2 in February from 46.8 in the prior month.
• Existing home sales in the US fell 0.7% to an annual rate of 4.0 million 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 104,996,280 cases with around 1,142,700 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,685,130 cases and 530,760 deaths, while France reported over 39,590,190 COVID-19 cases with 164,750 deaths. In total, there were at least 678,812,360 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,791,990 deaths.