Mid-afternoon market update: Dow rises 80 points, County Bancorp shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.24% to 33,957.60 while the NASDAQ rose 0.54% to 14,218.14. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.48% to 4,244.97.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,554,330 cases with around 602,090 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 29,977,860 cases and 389,300 deaths, while Brazil reported over 17,966,830 COVID-19 cases with 502,580 deaths. In total, there were at least 178,811,880 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,873,980 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares rose by 1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Tupperware Brands Corporation TUP 10.08%, up 11%, and Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. SBH 13.55%, up 11%.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

Korn Ferry KFY 9.67% reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Monday.

Korn Ferry reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.21 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $0.98 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $557.40 million, versus expectations of $488.48 million.

Korn Ferry said it sees Q1 earnings of $1.04-$1.14 per share and fee revenue of $535 million to $555 million.

Equities Trading UP

Alfi, Inc. ALF 108.85% shares shot up 84% to $14.32 following exclusive Benzinga reporting the company will buyback up to $2 million of its stock. Company CEO told Benzinga ALFI's stock is "undervalued based on pipeline projections and identified opportunity."

Shares of County Bancorp, Inc. ICBK 47.29% got a boost, shooting 46% to $34.19. Nicolet Bankshares reported a deal to buy County Bancorp.

3D Systems Corporation DDD 27.84% shares were also up, gaining 31% to $37.78 after the company and CollPlant announced an agreement for a 3D bioprinted regenerative soft tissue matrix for use in breast reconstruction procedures.

Equities Trading DOWN

New Concept Energy, Inc. GBR 37.61% shares tumbled 32% to $6.44 after climbing over 73% on Monday.

Shares of Focus Financial Partners Inc. FOCS 5.88% were down 6% to $51.17 after the company reported the pricing of its underwritten secondary offering of 7,417,929 shares of its Class A common stock.

MicroVision, Inc. MVIS 10.58% was down, falling 13% to $17.03 after the company announced a $140 million at-the-market equity offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $73.13, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,778.90.

Silver traded down 0.6% Tuesday to $25.88 while copper rose 1% to $4.2260.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.26%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.02% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.21%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.39%, French CAC 40 rose 0.14% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.32%.

Public sector net borrowing in the UK declined to GBP 24.3 billion in May. Italy's industrial sales rose 3.3% in April following a revised 1.7% growth rise in March.

Economics

US existing home sales fell 0.9% to an annual rate of 5.8 million in May.

The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index increased to 22 in June from 18 in May.