Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Tumbles 7%; Navistar Shares Rise Following Strong Q4 Results

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.69 percent to 23,754.64 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.79 percent to 6,806.83. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.33 percent to 2,554.37.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the consumer discretionary shares climbed 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included The Lovesac Company LOVE 8.65% up 16 percent, andAscena Retail Group, Inc. ASNA 10.76% up 9 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 1 percent.

Top Headline

Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI 4.72% reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Tuesday.

Darden Restaurants reported quarterly earnings of $0.92 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.90. The company reported quarterly sales of $1.973 billion which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.98 billion.

Darden Restaurants expects FY19 earnings of $5.60 to $5.70 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Marin Software Incorporated MRIN 33.91% shares got a boost, shooting up 37 percent to $3.9200 after the company announced it has entered a revenue sharing agreement with Google. The company also raised Q4 guidance.

Shares of Navistar International Corporation NAV 14.81% shot up 15 percent to $27.27 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Biocept, Inc. BIOC 61.95% shares were also up, gaining 74 percent to $1.1900 after the company entered a software license and laboratory data supply agreement with Prognos..

Equities Trading DOWN

Determine, Inc. DTRM 20.11% shares dropped 20 percent to $0.3000 after the company announced it was unable to regain NASDAQ compliance and anticipates the stock will be delisted.

Shares of Nemaura Medical Inc. NMRD 39.56% were down 39 percent to $0.8450 after the company priced its $2.5 million share common stock offering at $1.02 per share.

OptimizeRx Corporation OPRX 17.67% was down, falling around 16 percent to $9.73 after the company priced its offering of approximately 2.1 million shares at $10 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 7 percent to $46.39 while gold traded up 0.12 percent to $ 1,253.30.

Silver traded down 0.26 percent Tuesday to $14.72, while copper fell 3.38 percent to $2.6615.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.82 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index declined 1.27 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.26 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.29 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.95 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.06 percent.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day policy meeting today.

U.S. housing starts rose 3.2 percent at an annual rate of 1.256 million in November. Housing permits increased 5 percent at an annual rate of 1.328 million.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index declined 0.3 percent during the first two weeks of December versus November.