Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; AutoZone Profit Tops Views

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.32 percent to 26,146.07 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.74 percent to 7,954.23. The S&P also rose, rising 0.40 percent to 2,900.30.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, the energy shares rose 1.19 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included California Resources Corporation CRC up 10 percent, and Enbridge Energy Management, L.L.C. EEQ up 7 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.6 percent.

Top Headline

AutoZone, Inc. AZO reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.

AutoZone posted quarterly earnings of $18.54 per share on sales of $3.56 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $17.99 per share on sales of $3.60 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Viking Therapeutics Inc VKTX shares shot up 93 percent to $20.06 after announcing top-line results from Phase 2 study of VK2809. The study achieved primary endpoint.

Shares of BioHiTech Global, Inc. BHTG got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $3.6290 after the company disclosed that it has received local permit approval to build HEBioT resource recovery facility in Rensselaer New York.

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc NAVB shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $0.22 after the company reported acceptance into the National Institutes of Health Commercialization Accelerator Program.

Equities Trading DOWN

Twin Disc, Incorporated TWIN shares dropped 11 percent to $23.17 after reporting a $30 million common stock offering.

Shares of Workiva Inc. WK were down 13 percent to $33.10. Morgan Stanley downgraded Workiva from Equal-Weight to Underweight.

Apogee Enterprises, Inc. APOG was down, falling around 12 percent to $42.70 after the company missed Q2 earnings estimated and cut FY19 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.34 percent to $69.83 while gold traded up 0.05 percent to $1,206.40.

Silver traded up 0.19 percent Tuesday to $14.25, while copper rose 2.13 to $2.7075.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.07 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.25 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.10 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.29 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.34 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.07 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.3 percent during the first two weeks of September versus August.

The NAHB housing market index was unchanged at 67 for September.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury International Capital report for July is schedule for release at 4:00 p.m. ET.