Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Mixed; Foot Locker Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.18 percent to 15,980.75 while the NASDAQ surged 0.13 percent to 3,974.38. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.06 percent to 1,794.82.

Top Headline
Foot Locker FL reported a better-than-expected third-quarter profit. Foot Locker's quarterly profit surged to $0.70 per share, versus $0.69 per share, in the year-ago period. However, its profit declined to $104 million versus $106 million. Excluding one-time items, it earned $0.68 per share.

Its revenue climbed to $1.62 billion from $1.52 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.66 per share on revenue of $1.57 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Ariad Pharmaceuticals

ARIA

shot up 24.73 percent to $3.48 after the company announced positive opinion by the EMA on continued availability of Iclusig.

Shares of Splunk SPLK got a boost, shooting up 17.26 percent to $70.24 after the company reported upbeat results for the third quarter and issued a strong forecast.

Aruba Networks

ARUN

was also up, gaining 9.65 percent to $18.86 after the company reported upbeat Q1 results. Needham upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Nordic American Tankers NAT were down 10.47 percent to $7.95 after the company announced the pricing of follow-on offering.

The Fresh Market

TFM

shares tumbled 15.96 percent to $42.35 after the company reported downbeat Q3 results and issued a weak profit outlook. Sterne Agee

downgraded the stock

from Buy to Neutral and lowered the price target from $59.00 to $44.00.

Ross Stores ROST was down, falling 7.69 percent to $74.09 after the company reported weak Q3 revenue and cut its Q4 earnings forecast. Maxim Group downgraded the stock from Hold to Sell and lowered the price target from $75.00 to $63.00.

Commodities

In commodity news,

oil traded down 0.21 percent

to $95.24, while gold traded up 0.06 percent to $1,244.30.

Silver traded up 0.05 percent Friday to $19.99, while copper rose 0.42 percent to $3.21.

Eurozone

European shares

were mostly higher

today. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.93 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.10 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.13 percent and the French CAC 40 surged 0.53 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.07 percent.

Economics
Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo is expected to speak at 12:15 p.m. ET.

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