U.S. stock market traded high in Tuesday pre-market trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded slightly above 24,450, advancing more than 400 points.
Strong earnings from Simulations Plus Inc. (SLP, Financial) contributed to shares of the company inching up about 2% in premarket trading. The company posted second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 11 cents on revenue of $7.35 million, which was 28.7% higher than the comparable period. Moreover, the company managed to beat revenue expectations by $200,000.
Further, the gross profit reached $5.2 million, up $1.1 million, or 26.2%, compared to $4.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2017. Almost half of the increase, 48%, is from DILIsym Services, which was acquired on June 1, 2017.
The gross margin was 71.2%, slightly lower from the 72.8% in the year-ago period, because more of the new revenues from DILIsym are from consulting rather than software.
Gainers
· Range Resources Corp. (RRC, Financial)
· NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA, Financial)
· Devon Energy Corp. (DVN, Financial)
· KLA-Tencor Corp. (KLAC, Financial)
Losers
· American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL, Financial)
· Coty Inc. (COTY, Financial)
· Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV, Financial)
· Duke Energy Corp. (DUK, Financial)
Global Markets
The main European stock markets traded higher, with all the main indexes in green territory. The U.K.'s FTSE gained 0.74%, the France's CAC jumped 0.68%, the Germany's Dax advanced 1.09% and Spain's Ibex inched up 0.09%.
In Asia, markets closed mixed. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.54%, India’s BSE Sensex closed up 0.27%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.65% and China´s Shanghai gained 1.66%.
Disclosure: The author holds no position in any stocks mentioned
