Benzinga | Aug 18, 2020 12:22PM EDT

Mid-Day Market Update: Natural Gas Services Jumps After Q2 Results; Poseida Therapeutics Shares Slide

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.14% to 27,806.64 while the NASDAQ rose 0.44% to 11,178.80. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16% to 3,387.51.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 5,444,110 cases with around 170,550 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,359,570 COVID-19 cases with 108,530 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,702,740 confirmed cases and 51,790 deaths. In total, there were at least 21,912,210 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 774,660 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained 1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included RISE Education Cayman Ltd (NASDAQ:REDU), up 59%, and GrowGeneration Corp. (NASDAQ:GRWG), up 15%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Walmart reported quarterly earnings of $1.56 per share, surpassing analysts' estimates of $1.25 per share. The company's sales came in at $137.70 billion, exceeding expectations of $135.37 billion.

The company's US e-commerce sales jumped 97%, while US same-store sales rose 9.3% during the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

MICT, Inc. (NASDAQ:MICT) shares shot up 69% to $5.92 after the company announced its subsidiary Micronet has received the first significant order for its SmartCam following a successful pilot trial with a leading global telematics provider.

Shares of Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) got a boost, shooting 20% to $8.14 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results.

Forward Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORD) shares were also up, gaining 36% to $1.86 after the company said it acquired substantially all the assets of Kablooe Design.

Equities Trading DOWN

Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSTX) shares tumbled 30% to $9.12 after the company said the FDA has placed on clinical hold its Phase 1 trial for PSMA-101 in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. The clinical hold is due to the death of a patientwho failed treatment with multiple anti-cancer agents and was treated with PPSMA-101 in late July.

Shares of Urban One, Inc. (NASDAQ:UONE) were down 25% to $7.17 after the company reported a $25 million at-the-market equity offering program.

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:SHIP) was down, falling 53% to $0.555 after the company reported pricing of $25.0 million underwritten public offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $42.58, while gold traded up 0.4% to $2,006.10.

Silver traded up 0.4% Tuesday to $27.765, while copper rose 2% to $2.9595.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.67%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.86%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index fell 0.72%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.48%, French CAC 40 rose 0.5% and UK shares fell 0.93%.

Economics

U.S. housing starts climbed 22.6% to an annualized rate of 1.496 million in July, while building permits increased 18.8% to an annual rate of 1.495 million.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index increased 2.8% during the first two weeks of August versus July.