Mid-afternoon market update: Dow falls 60 points; Churchill Capital IV (CCIV Stock) shares plunge

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.19% to 31,461.29 while the NASDAQ fell 1.43% to 13,340.01. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.38% to 3,861.77.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 28,190,620 cases with around 500,310 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,016,430 confirmed cases and 156,460 deaths, while Brazil reported over 10,195,160 COVID-19 cases with 247,140 deaths. In total, there were at least 111,790,690 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,476,120 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 1.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Frank's International N.V. FI 20.23%, up 27%, and Peabody Energy Corporation BTU 10.11%, up 10%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 1.6%.

Top Headline

The Home Depot, Inc. HD 2.92% reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Home Depot reported quarterly earnings of $2.74 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.62 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $32.30 billion, versus expectations of $30.73 billion.

Home Depot raised its quarterly dividend from $1.50 to $1.65 per share.

Equities Trading UP

TimkenSteel Corporation TMST 27.36% shares shot up 32% to $8.29 after KeyBanc upgraded the stock from Sector Weight to Overweight and announced a price target of $10 per share..

Shares of Frank's International N.V. FI 20.23% got a boost, shooting 27% to $4.41 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNSS 25.84% shares were also up, gaining 22% to $4.3501 after Oppenheimer upgraded the stock from Perform to Outperform and announced a price target of $12 per share. The company earlier announced vote approving reverse stock split within range between 3-for-1 and 6-for-1.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Churchill Capital Corp IV CCIV 38.05% shares tumbled 32% to $39.24 after the company, and Lucid Motors, announced they have entered into a definitive merger agreement.

Shares of Riot Blockchain, Inc. RIOT 28.7% were down 24% to $49.31 following a drop in the price of Bitcoin.

The9 Limited NCTY 35.72% was down, falling 30% to $57.13 following a drop in the price of Bitcoin. The9 acquired 70% equity in Hangzhou SuanLi Technology Co. Ltd. (Interhash), a cryptocurrency cloud mining blockchain software-as-a-service company for approximately $7 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $61.66, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,802.90.

Silver traded down 1.7% Tuesday to $27.60 while copper rose 1.4% to $4.2005.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.42%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.72% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.61%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.21%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.21% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.3%.

UK’s labor productivity declined 4.5% on quarter in the fourth quarter, while unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in the three months to December.