Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Cato Falls Following Q2 Results; Leju Shares Jump

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.29 percent to 25,657.92 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.08 percent to 7,895.54. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.11 percent to 2,858.55.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the information technology shares rose 0.52 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Leju Holdings Limited LEJU up 27 percent, and Seven Stars Cloud Group, Inc. SSC up 16 percent.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 0.80 percent.

Top Headline

Hormel Foods Corp HRL reported in-line earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company also lowered its FY18 sales guidance.

Hormel Foods posted quarterly earnings of $0.39 per share on revenue of $2.359 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.39 per share on revenue of $2.38 billion.

Hormel now projects FY18 sales of $ $9.4 billion to $9.6 billion, versus earlier forecast of $9.7 billion to $10.10 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Leju Holdings Limited LEJU shares shot up 27 percent to $1.62 after posting an unexpected profit in its second quarter.

Shares of Obalon Therapeutics, Inc. OBLN got a boost, shooting up 60 percent to $2.80 after the company announced it will raise a $10 million private placement.

Lantronix, Inc. LTRX shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $5.02 after reporting a fourth-quarter earnings beat.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cato Corporation CATO shares dropped 17 percent to $19.68 after the company reported weak Q2 results. Cato posted Q2 earnings of $0.26 per share on sales of $208.917 million.

Shares of Stein Mart, Inc. SMRT were down 10 percent to $2.73. Stein Mart posted Q2 loss of $0.02 per share on sales of $310.94 million. Comps were up 0.7 percent year-over-year and the company said it anticipates low single-digit comps growth in the second half of the year.

L Brands, Inc. LB was down, falling around 11 percent to $28.253. L Brands reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter, but lowered its FY18 forecast. The company also disclosed that CEO Of Victoria's Secret PINK brand Denise Landman will retire at the year end.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.18 percent to $67.74 while gold traded down 0.75 percent to $1,194.30.

Silver traded down 1.38 percent Thursday to $14.645, while copper fell 0.93 to $2.6685.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.17 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.13 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.44 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.16 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.02 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.15 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims dropped 2,000 to 210,000 in the latest week. However, economists projected a 215,000 reading.

The IHS U.S. flash services PMI declined to 55.2 for August, versus prior reading of 56. The manufacturing flash PMI dropped to 54.5 in August from 55.3.

New home sales report fell 1.7 percent to an annual rate of 627,000 for July.

Domestic supplies of natural gas increased 48 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 17, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

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