Benzinga | Jan 25, 2021 10:14AM EST

Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Kimberly Clark Profit Beats Views

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.36% to 30,884.99 while the NASDAQ rose 1.13% to 13,696.20. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.34% to 3,854.37.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 25,127,570 cases with around 419,220 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,667,730 confirmed cases and 153,470 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,844,570 COVID-19 cases with 217,030 deaths. In total, there were at least 99,245,800 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,130,650 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares gained by 1.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included VivoPower International PLC (NASDAQ:VVPR), up 28%, and Just Energy Group Inc (NYSE:JE), up 21%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 1.6%.

Top Headline

Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB) reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter. The company also announced a $5 billion buyback program and raised its quarterly dividend from $1.07 to $1.14 per share.

Kimberly-Clark reported quarterly earnings of $1.69 per share, beating analysts' expectations of $1.61 per share. The company posted revenue of $4.80 billion, versus estimates of $4.71 billion.

Kimberly-Clark said it expects FY21 adjusted earnings of $7.75 to $8.00 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $7.77 per share.



Equities Trading UP

TS Innovation Acquisitions Corp. (NASDAQ:TSIA) shares shot up 64% to $17.00. Enterprise SaaS platform Latch is going public through a SPAC merger with TS Innovation Acquisition. The Tishman Speyer-sponsored SPAC has a long-term existing collaboration with Latch.

Shares of Aemetis, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMTX) got a boost, shooting 60% to $7.06. Aemetis shares gained over 9% on Friday after the company announced that its "Carbon Zero" biofuels production process has received a total of $16.8millionof solar energy and other energy efficiency grants to fund upgrades of the Keyes, California plant to support the production of zero carbon renewable fuel.

Orbital Energy Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:OEG) shares were also up, gaining 43% to $7.17. Orbital Energy Group's subsidiary, Orbital Solar Services, has been named the engineering, procurement, and construction company "of choice" for the newly-formed Black Sunrise Half Century Fund.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

ReneSola Ltd (NYSE:SOL) shares tumbled 18% to $27.44 after the company priced its 10 million ADS offering at $25 per ADS.

Shares of Centrais El?tricas Brasileiras S.A. - Eletrobr?s (NYSE:EBR) were down 14% to $4.85.

Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:RKDA) was down, falling 13% to $2.985 after the company priced its 7.88 million share common stock purchase at $3.1925 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $52.81, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,862.10.

Silver traded up 0.8% Monday to $25.765 while copper rose 0.3% to $3.6360.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.6% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.1%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.3%, London's FTSE 100 fell 0.3% and Italy's FTSE MIB gained 0.1%.

German Ifo business climate indicator declined to 90.1 in January versus a revised reading of 92.2 in the earlier month.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index climbed to 0.52 in December versus a revised reading of 0.31 in November.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for January will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 2-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here