Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Lower; JPMorgan Tops Q4 Expectations

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.03% to 28915.99 while the NASDAQ fell 0.16% to 9259.39. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.16% to 3,283.01.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 0.3% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Jianpu Technology Inc - ADR JT, up 7%, and First Republic Bank FRC, up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 0.7%.

Top Headline

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Tuesday.

JPMorgan reported earnings of $2.57 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.35. The company reported fourth-quarterly sales of $28.3 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $27.96 billion

Equities Trading UP

RTI Surgical Holdings, Inc. RTIX shares shot up 69% to $4.65 after the company announced it will sell its OEM Business for $490 million. The company also issued preliminary Q4 and FY19 sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Shares of XBiotech Inc. XBIT got a boost, shooting up 39% to $25.92 after the company announced it has commenced a tender offer to purchase up to $420 million of its common shares.

Inpixon INPX shares were also up, gaining 35% to $4.91 after falling 9.9% on Monday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Stemline Therapeutics, Inc. STML shares tumbled 33% to $6.37. Stemline Therapeutics announced preliminary results for 2019 and said it expects Elzonris net revenue of $43.2 million for the full year and $11.8 million for the fourth quarter. Analysts, on average, are forecasting revenueof $15.06 million for the fourth quarter and $46.44 million for the full year..

Shares of NantKwest, Inc. NK were down 15% to $5.76. NantKwest and ImmunityBio announced complete response in metastatic pancreatic cancer in first patient to receive PD-L1 tumor-targeted natural killer cells (PD-L1.t-haNK) combined with N-803 IL-15 fusion protein.

GameStop Corp. GME was down, falling 16% to $4.5854 after the company reported holiday sales were down 27.5% year-over-year and comparable sales were down 24.7% year-over-year.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $58.38, while gold traded down 0.3% to $1,545.60.

Silver traded down 1.1% Tuesday to $17.795, while copper fell 0.3% to $2.853.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.6%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.3% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.2%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.4% while UK shares rose 0.1%.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index dropped to 102.7 in December, versus a reading of 104.7 in November.

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2% increase.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.