Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Dollar General Profit Beats Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.29 percent to 26,047.92 while the NASDAQ declined 0.17 percent to 8,095.70. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.21 percent to 2,907.95.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the utilities shares rose 0.26 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TerraForm Power, Inc. TERP up 4 percent, and PG&E Corporation PCG up 2 percent.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 0.95 percent.

Top Headline

Dollar General Corp. DG reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Dollar General posted quarterly earnings of $1.52 per share on revenue of $6.443 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.49 per share on revenue of $6.37 billion. Its same-store sales increased 3.7 percent in the quarter. Dollar General’s gross margin declined 7 basis points.

Equities Trading UP

Reis Inc REIS shares shot up 33 percent to $23.05 after Moody's Corporation MCO reported a deal to buy the company for $23 per share in cash.

Shares of K2M Group Holdings, Inc. KTWO got a boost, shooting up 25 percent to $27.38 after the company agreed to be purchased by Stryker Corporation SYK at $27.50 per share in cash.

Signet Jewelers Limited SIG shares were also up, gaining 26 percent to $68.58 after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and raised its FY19 forecast.

Equities Trading DOWN

Kirkland's, Inc. KIRK shares dropped 18 percent to $9.405 after reporting Q2 results.

Shares of Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. UEPS were down 16 percent to $7.40 after the company reported preliminary results for its fourth quarter.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF was down, falling around 14 percent to $23.52 after reporting downbeat Q2 sales.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.62 percent to $69.94 while gold traded down 0.07 percent to $1,210.70.

Silver traded down 0.54 percent Thursday to $14.73, while copper fell 0.75 to $2.716.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.38 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.90 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.41 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.58 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.47 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.59 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 3,000 to 213,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a reading of 214,000.

U.S. consumer spending rose 0.4 percent for July, while personal income increased 0.3 percent.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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