Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up Over 2%; Foot Locker Shares Rise On Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.39 percent to 23,366.26 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.03 percent to 6,795.21. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.13 percent to 2,582.30.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the basic materials sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Amyris Inc AMRS and Hawkins, Inc. HWKN.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.22 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Genie Energy Ltd GNE, down 8 percent, and Artesian Resources Corporation ARTNA down 2 percent.

Top Headline

Foot Locker, Inc. FL posted stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Foot Locker posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.87 per share on revenue of $1.87 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.80 per share on revenue of $1.83 billion. Its same-store sales fell 3.7 percent during the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Diana Containerships Inc DCIX shares shot up 45 percent to $9.60. Diana Containerships reported a Q3 loss of $128.67 per share on sales of $6.73 million.

Shares of Shoe Carnival, Inc. SCVL got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $26.65 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Foot Locker, Inc. FL shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $39.62 after the company posted stronger-than-expected Q3 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. WSM shares dropped 15 percent to $44.94 after reporting third quarter results. The company also reported fourth quarter earnings guidance below estimates. Williams-Sonoma announced the purchase of 3-D imaging and augmented reality platform Outward, Inc. for $112 million.

Shares of Vascular Biogenics Ltd VBLT were down 20 percent to $7.22. VBL Therapeutics reported pricing of 2.5 million share common stock offering for $18.75 million.

Birks Group Inc BGI was down, falling around 23 percent to $1.89 after the company reported financial results for the twenty-six week period ended September 23, 2017.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.18 percent to $56.34 while gold traded up 0.95 percent to $1,290.40.

Silver traded up 0.46 percent Friday to $17.15, while copper rose 0.54 percent to $3.088.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.29 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.78 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.51 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.10 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 0.20 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.08 percent.

Economics

U.S. housing starts increased 13.7 percent to an annual rate of 1.29 million for October. However, economists were expecting a 1.19 million rate.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs came in unchanged at 738 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.