Mid-afternoon market update: Dow surges 400 points; Crude Oil down 7%

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.77% to 23,080 while the NASDAQ rose 0.88% to 7,982.76. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.57% to 2,705.53.

The U.S. is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases around the world. U.S. reported a total of 368,400 coronavirus cases with around 10,900 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 140,500 coronavirus cases with 13,700 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 132,500 confirmed cases and 16,500 deaths. In total, there were at least 1,359,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 75,900 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 5.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Western Midstream Partners, LP WES 20.1%, up 27%, and DCP Midstream, LP DCP 15.78%, up 23%.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares rose by just 0.8%.

Top Headline

Greenbrier Companies Inc GBX 15.92% reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed views.

Greenbrier reported quarterly earnings of $0.46 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.29 per share. The company’s sales came in at $623.8 million, missing the consensus view of $798.97 million.

Greenbrier has lowered its global workforce by 3,500 employees. The company announced plans to suspend earlier issued guidance and cut overhead costs.

Equities Trading UP

Akers Biosciences, Inc. AKER 23.88% shares shot up 22% to $5.70. Akers Biosciences filed amendment to $25 million offering of stock and debt securities. Akers Biosciences shares jumped around 147% on Monday following an update from the company regarding its COVID-19 vaccine development program.

Shares of Borr Drilling Limited BORR 112.5% got a boost, shooting 142% to $1.9150 after surging over 37% on Monday.

Sasol Limited SSL 66.6% shares were also up, gaining 64% to $4.17 amid hopes of production cuts by key producers to sustain prices, as well as positive economic sentiment on a potential leveling off of coronavirus cases in some regions.

Equities Trading DOWN

SeaChange International, Inc. SEAC 27.41% shares tumbled 26% to $2.67 after reporting weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

Shares of Chimera Investment Corporation CIM 20.3% were down 18% to $6.66 after the company reported a public offering of convertible senior notes.

Golar LNG Limited GLNG 23.44% was down, falling 23% to $4.7010.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 7% to $24.26, while gold traded down 1% to $1,677.60.

Silver traded up 1.3% Tuesday to $15.37, while copper rose 2.3% to $2.268.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.88%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.3%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 2.19%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 2.79%, and the French CAC 40 rose 2.12% while UK shares rose 2.19%.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.9% during March versus February.

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index declined 6.2 points to a reading of 47.8 in April.

The number of US job openings fell by 130,000 to 6.882 million in February, versus a revised 7.012 million in the earlier month.

Data on consumer credit for February will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.