Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Rises Over 300 Points; Bristow Group Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.22 percent to 25,358.57 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.34 percent to 7,405.91. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.13 percent to 2,740.45.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Tuesday, the financial shares climbed 1.7 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included OneMain Holdings Inc OMF 12.77% up 13 percent, and AGM Group Holdings Inc AGMH 19.26% up 21 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 0.8 percent.

Top Headline

US Foods Holding Corp USFD 4.17% reported downbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales exceeded views.

US Foods earned $0.56 cents per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $6 billion. However, analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.59 per share on revenue of $5.97 billion.

US Foods Holding expects FY19 adjusted earnings of $2.15 to $2.25 per share and adjusted EBITDA growth of at least 5 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Ellie Mae Inc ELLI 20.99% shares got a boost, shooting up 21 percent to $99.11 after the company announced it will be acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $99 per share.

Shares of Applied DNA Sciences Inc APDN 34.66% shot up 44 percent to $0.63 after the company signed a term sheet with TheraCann International for an exclusive license of CertainT platform for legal cannabis and Hemp.

CAS Medical Systems Inc CASM 53.98% shares were also up, gaining 54 percent to $2.42 after Edwards Lifesciences Corp EW 2.28% agreed to acquire the company for $2.45 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bristow Group Inc BRS 35.23% shares dropped 35 percent to $2.00 after the company terminated its planned acquisition of Columbia Helicopters and reported soft Q3 results. Bristow will pay a $20 million fee as a result of the merger termination.

Shares of Xeris Pharmaceuticals Inc XERS 16.51% were down 16 percent to $12.42 after reporting a 5 million share common stock offering.

Multi-Color Corporation LABL 13.64% was down, falling around 14 percent to $43.78 after the company reported downbeat Q3 results. The company also issued FY19 EPS guidance below analyst estimates.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.7 percent to $53.28 while gold traded up 0.1 percent to $1,313.10.

Silver traded down 0.1 percent Tuesday to $15.68, while copper fell 0.8 percent to $2.768.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.55 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.77 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.32 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 1.2 percent, and the French CAC 40 surged 1.1 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.08 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index declined 3.2 points to a reading of 101.2 for January.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 1.8 percent during the first week of February versus January.

The labor market remained strong as 2018 ended, with job openings reaching a high of 7.3 million on the last business day of December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. The 7.3 million openings was up from 5.7 million at the end of 2017.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak at Mississippi Valley State University at Itta Bena, Mississippi at 12:45 p.m. ET.

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George will speak in Kansas City at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester is set to speak in Cincinnati, OH at 6:30 p.m. ET.