U.S. stocks saw a slight decline in midday trading on Tuesday. The S&P 500 was trading lower while the Dow and NASDAQ also experienced minor drops.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Real estate shares experienced a notable increase of 1.3% during Tuesday’s trading session. Meanwhile, communication services shares fell by 0.3%.
Top Headline
Caterpillar Inc (CAT) reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter. The company’s revenue increased by 12% year-over-year to $16.81 billion, surpassing the consensus estimate of $16.59 billion. Caterpillar’s adjusted earnings per share were $5.52, compared to $3.95 in the same period last year, beating the consensus estimate of $4.79.
For the fourth quarter, Caterpillar expects slightly higher sales and revenues compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. However, the adjusted operating profit margin is projected to be lower than that of the third quarter of 2023.
Equities Trading UP
SciSparc Ltd. SPRC shares surged 57% to $5.35 after the company announced it received acceptance from the Australian patent office for its patent application for pain treatment using a combination of opioids and N-Acylethanolamines.
Shares of Cardio Diagnostics Holdings, Inc. CDIO rose by 52% to $0.3245 after the company secured an Innovation Technology contract from Vizient for its novel AI-driven precision heart disease tests.
Wolfspeed, Inc. WOLF also experienced a 27% increase in share price, reaching $35.27, following the release of its first-quarter financial results and guidance.
Equities Trading DOWN
Kintara Therapeutics, Inc. KTRA shares plummeted by 76% to $0.9071 after the company announced that its drug VAL-083 did not outperform existing treatments for glioblastoma, a severe form of brain cancer.
Shares of Galera Therapeutics, Inc. GRTX were down by 59% to $0.0872 after the company revealed that its GRECO-2 trial did not pass the futility analysis.
Sientra, Inc. SIEN fell by 54% to $0.6645 following the release of preliminary unaudited third-quarter financial results.
Commodities
Crude oil prices increased by 0.6% to $82.84, while gold prices rose by 0.2% to $2,009.50 on Tuesday. Silver prices declined by 0.4% to $23.315, and copper prices fell by 0.3% to $3.6460.
Eurozone
European shares showed mixed results, with the eurozone’s STOXX 600 gaining 0.54%. The German DAX rose by 0.51%, France’s CAC 40 climbed by 0.93%, and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped by 1.37%. London’s FTSE 100 fell slightly by 0.04%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index declined by 0.14%.
In October, the Eurozone’s inflation rate eased to 2.9% year-over-year, the lowest level since July 2021. The Eurozone economy contracted by 0.1% in the third quarter, compared to a revised 0.2% increase in the previous quarter. During the third quarter, the French economy expanded by 0.1%, slower than the revised 0.6% increase in the second quarter. France’s consumer price inflation declined to 4% year-over-year in October from 4.9% in the previous month, while producer prices increased by 0.7% month-over-month in September. German import prices declined by 14.3% year-over-year in September, and retail sales in Germany fell by 0.8% month-over-month in September.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mostly lower on Tuesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose by 0.53%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell by 1.69%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped by 0.09%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex slipped around 0.1%.
The Bank of Japan maintained its key short-term interest rate at -0.1%. Japanese housing starts fell by 6.8% year-over-year in September, while retail sales increased by 5.8% year-over-year in the same month. Industrial production climbed by 0.2% month-over-month, and the unemployment rate decreased to 2.6% in September from 2.7% in the previous month.
In China, the official NBS manufacturing PMI declined to 49.5 in October from 50.2 in the previous month, while the official NBS non-manufacturing PMI fell to 50.6 from 51.7. Hong Kong’s economy grew by 4.1% year-over-year in the third quarter, an improvement from the 1.5% increase in the previous quarter.
Economics
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased by 2.2% year-over-year in August, compared to a 0.2% increase in July. The FHFA house price index rose by 0.6% from the previous month in August, slightly lower than the 0.8% increase in July. Compensation costs for civilian workers rose by 1.1% in the third quarter. The Chicago PMI slipped to 44 in October from 44.1 in the previous month. The Dallas Fed general business activity index for Texas’s service sector fell to a reading of -18.2 in October from -8.6 in September.
