Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Philip Morris Profit Beats Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.45 percent to 25,085.80 while the NASDAQ declined 0.43 percent to 7,820.36. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.41 percent to 2,804.16.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the utilities shares climbed 0.91 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Dominion Energy, Inc. D up 3 percent, and Atlantic Power Corporation AT up 3 percent.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 1.18 percent.

Top Headline

Philip Morris International Inc. PM reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter. However, the company lowered its earnings guidance for 2018.

The company posted quarterly profit of $1.41 per share, on revenue of $7.726 billion. Analysts projected earnings of $1.24 per share on revenue of $7.57 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Schmitt Industries, Inc.. SMIT shares shot up 42 percent to $3.40 after reporting strong Q4 results. Schmitt Industries posted Q4 earnings of $0.06 per share, compared to year-ago loss of $0.14 per share. Its sales rose to $3.79 million from $3.65 million.

Shares of Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. RKDA got a boost, shooting up 16 percent to $7.97 after the agricultural food ingredient company and its partner Shriram Bioseed announced the achievement of a key milestone. The company's ESL technology realized significant and consistent improvements in field yield and fruit quality in tomatoes.

BioPharmX Corporation BPMX shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $0.2466 after the FDA granted company CARC waiver for BPX-01 acne treatment.

Equities Trading DOWN

Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. MRSN shares dropped 36 percent to $10.60 as the FDA placed partial clinical hold on the company’s XMT-1522 cancer drug after patient death, which is not confirmed to be related to drug.

Shares of Resources Connection, Inc. RECN were down 11 percent to $15.20. Resources Connection reported Q4 earnings of $4 million on revenue of $183.8 million.

Medigus Ltd. MDGS was down, falling around 9 percent to $3.37. Medigus priced its 2.837 million share offering at $3.50 per unit.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.79 percent to $68.22 while gold traded down 1.03 percent to $1,215.20.

Silver traded down 2.02 percent Thursday to $15.26, while copper fell 2.83 to $2.682.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.13 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.35 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.25 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.45 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.47 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.10 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 8,000 to 207,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 220,000 reading.

The Philly Fed manufacturing index increased 6 points to a reading of 25.7 for July. However, economists were projecting a reading of 21.5.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.5 percent for June.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.