Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 50 Points; DLH Holdings Shares Drop

US stocks traded mixed in the afternoon session on Tuesday after recording sharp gains in the previous session. Wall Street closed the volatile January month with steep losses.

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.14% to 35,182.32 while the NASDAQ fell 0.30% to 14,197.09. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.05% to 4,513.40.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped 3% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG), up 10% and Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) up 9%.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 1.2%.

Top Headline

United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter.

UPS reported quarterly earnings of $3.59 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $3.10 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $27.80 billion, versus estimates of $27.06 billion. UPS boosted its quarterly dividend from $1.02 to $1.52 per share.

UPS expects consolidated revenue of about $102 billion vs. consensus of $100.01 billion, an adjusted operating margin of 13.7%, and an adjusted return on invested capital to be above 30%.

Equities Trading UP

Biofrontera Inc. (NASDAQ: BFRI) shares shot up 23% to $4.18 after the company provided an update on patient recruitment for the Phase III study for the treatment of sBCC with Ameluz-PDT.

Shares of GreenPower Motor Company Inc. (NASDAQ: GP) got a boost, shooting 20% to $6.75. The company disclosed a partnership with BridgeValley Community & Technical College and the Workforce Development Board of Kanawha County.

Digihost Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: DGHI) shares were also up, gaining 17% to $4.2338 after the company reported an 86% year over year increase in Bitcoin production for January.

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Equities Trading DOWN

DLH Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: DLHC) shares tumbled 22% to $14.72 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 sales results.

Shares of Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) were down 16% to $5.18 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS results.

Anavex Life Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: AVXL) was down, falling 15% to $11.08 as the company reported topline data from the Phase 3 AVATAR trial of ANAVEX2-73 (blarcamesine) in adult female patients with Rett syndrome.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $87.88, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,802.20.

Silver traded up 0.7% Tuesday to $22.55 while copper rose 2.5% to $4.4305.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.28%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.96%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.32%. The German DAX surged 0.96%, French CAC 40 gained 1.43% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.53%.

The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI for Eurozone was revised lower to 58.7 in January versus a preliminary reading of 59. The IHS Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 57.3 in January from a preliminary level of 56.9, while consumer credit rose by GBP 0.8 billion in December. The unemployment rate in Italy fell to 9% in December, while unemployment rate in Germany fell to 5.1% in January.

Spain’s manufacturing PMI came in unchanged at 56.2 in January from the previous month, while French manufacturing PMI slipped to 55.5 in January from 55.6 in December. The annual inflation rate in France accelerated to 2.9% in January from 2.8% in December.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index surged 15.2% year-over-year during the first four weeks of January.

The IHS Markit final manufacturing PMI for January came in at 55.5 for January, versus the flash level of 55.0.

The ISM manufacturing index fell to 57.6 for January from previous reading of 58.7.

US construction spending rose 0.2% for December.

The number of job openings increased to 10.925 million in December versus a revised 10.775 million in the prior month.

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