The major averages are rising at midday despite news overnight that China said the forced closure of their Houston consulate was an unprecedented escalation by the U.S. and threatened retaliation. While simmering China tensions, and rising coronavirus cases counts in many U.S. states, continue to keep the market on alert, neither is pausing the rally in stocks for now.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., existing home sales rebounded a record 20.7% to a 4.72M rate in May. The FHFA house price index dipped 0.3% to 287.3 in May.
At the state level for some U.S. COVID hot spots, Florida reported 379,619 COVID-19 cases, up nearly 10,000 cases from yesterday, while Arizona reports 150,609 COVID-19 cases, up 1,926 from the prior day.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) were 4% and 11% higher, respectively, near noon after the companies announced an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense to deliver up to 600M doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 in 2021. Under the agreement, the U.S. government will receive 100M doses of BNT162, the COVID-19 vaccine candidate jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, after Pfizer successfully manufactures and obtains approval or emergency use authorization from the U.S. FDA. The U.S. government will pay the companies $1.95B upon the receipt of the first 100M doses, following FDA authorization or approval. The U.S. government also can acquire up to an additional 500M doses.
On the earnings front, Snap (SNAP) shares fell 7% after the company reported Q2 results, with daily active users growing 17% year-over-year. The company also guided for Q3 DAU growth to 242M-244M users. Following the report, Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy, noting that the Q3 DAU growth guidance was below consensus.
In other earnings news, United Airlines (UAL) was nearly 4% lower after the carrier reported worse than expected Q2 adjusted losses, adding that cash burn during Q2 averaged $40M a day. The company also noted that over 6,000 employees have agreed to voluntary separations.
Shares of Best Buy (BBY) rose 8% after the company said the Q2 quarter-to-date sales through July 18 were up 2.5% year-over-year, with the largest sales growth drivers being the computing, appliance, and tablet categories. In addition, the comapny said it is raising its starting hourly wage for all domestic workers to $15, effective August 2.
Meanwhile, Slack (WORK) filed a competition complaint against Microsoft (MSFT) before the European Commission, saying the complaint details Microsoft's "illegal and anti-competitive practice of abusing its market dominance to extinguish competition in breach of European Union competition law."
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Waitr Holdings (WTRH), which rose 17% after it reported better than expected preliminary Q2 revenue. Also higher after reporting quarterly results were Calix (CALX) and Capital One (COF), which gained a respective 12% and 1%.
Among the notable losers was Nikola (NKLA), which slid 7% after the company announced a plan to redeem public warrants. Also lower was iRobot (IRBT), which fell 6% after reporting quarterly results.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 57.46, or 0.21%, to 26,897.86, the Nasdaq was up 3.65, or 0.03%, to 10,684.02, and the S&P 500 was up 7.12, or 0.22%, to 3,264.42.
Pfizer
+1.43 (+3.90%)
BioNTech
+8.52 (+9.30%)
Snap
-1.81 (-7.30%)
United Airlines
-0.96 (-2.91%)
Best Buy
+6.62 (+7.33%)
Bought by CRM
-1.06 (-3.25%)
Microsoft
+1.94 (+0.93%)
Symbol changed to ASAP
+0.79 (+17.87%)
Calix
+2.1 (+12.24%)
Capital One
+0.66 (+1.05%)
Nikola
-2.59 (-6.52%)
iRobot
-5.08 (-5.93%)