Mid-afternoon market update: Dow rises 50 points; Qilian International shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.17% to 31,060.29 while the NASDAQ rose 0.23% to 13,066.93. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.03% to 3,800.94.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 22,619,350 cases with around 376,280 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,479,170 confirmed cases and 151,320 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,131,610 COVID-19 cases with 203,580 deaths. In total, there were at least 90,995,180 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,947,750 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 3.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included ENGlobal Corporation ENG 69.59%, up 46%, and Transocean Ltd. RIG 17.36%, up 17%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares fell 1.5%.

Top Headline

Albertsons Companies Inc ACI 1.73% reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter and raised earnings forecast for the year.

Albertsons Companies reported quarterly earnings of $0.66 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $0.42 per share. The company posted sales of $15.41 billion, versus estimates of $15.34 billion.

Albertsons Companies said it now expects FY20 earnings of $3.05-$3.15 per share versus prior forecast of 2.75-$2.85 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Qilian International Holding Group Ltd NASDAQQLI shares shot up 136% to $11.81 after the company priced its IPO at $5 per share.

Shares of ArcLight Clean Transition Corp. ACTC 90.32% got a boost, shooting 84% to $22.45. Proterra is being taken public by ArcLight Clean Transition Corp. The deal values Proterra with an enterprise value of $1.6 billion. Current ArcLight shareholders will own 11.6% of Proterra after the merger.

U.S. Well Services, Inc. USWS 52.29% shares were also up, gaining 58% to $0.8198 after the company announced it finalized an extension of its contract to provide electric hydraulic fracturing services for Rang Resources in the Appalachian Basin.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. LEXX 38.83% shares tumbled 40% to $4.04 after the company reported a public offering of 1.83 million units at $5.25 per unit.

Shares of RedHill Biopharma Ltd. RDHL 12.34% were down 12% to $7.64 after the company said it has entered into an underwriting agreement with H.C. Wainwright & Co. for the purchase on a firm commitment basis of 1.28 million ADSs at a price of $7.84 per ADS.

Enveric Biosciences Inc. ENVB 13.76% was down, falling 14% to $4.18 as the company reported a $10 million registered direct offering of 2.221 million shares at $4.5018 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4% to $52.96, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,848.50.

Silver traded up 1.2% Tuesday to $25.59 while copper rose 1.7% to $3.6265.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.05%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.14% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.08%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.20%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.65% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 0.33%. U.K.’s retail sales increased 4.8% year-over-year in December.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index declined to 95.6 in December from 101.4 in the prior month.

The number of job openings fell by 105,000 to 6.527 million in November.

The IBD/TIPP economic optimism index increased 1.1 points to a reading of 50.1 in January.