Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Lower; Viacom Tops Q3 Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.06 percent to 18,343.59 while the NASDAQ declined 0.09 percent to 5,155.09. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.10 percent to 2,161.71.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector proved to be a source of strength for the market.

In trading on Thursday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.30 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Cogent Communications Holdings Inc CCOI, down 8 percent, and ORBCOMM Inc ORBC, down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Viacom, Inc. VIAB reported better-than-expected third quarter results.

The entertainment firm reported adjusted net earnings attributable to its shareholders of $419 million or $1.05 a share. In comparison, the company earned $591 million or $1.47 a share in the year-ago period suggesting that the adjusted profit dropped 29 percent on a year-over-year basis. However, the adjusted EPS were $0.04 a share more than the analysts' estimate of $1.01 a share.

Viacom generated 2 percent higher revenue at $3.107 billion than $3.058 billion recorded in the previous year quarter. Analysts' predicted $3.01 billion revenue.

Equities Trading UP

Check Cap Ltd CHEK shares shot up 81 percent to $2.51 as the company reported an agreement with GE Healthcare for X-Ray capsule manufacturing collaboration.

Shares of Ocular Therapeutix Inc OCUL got a boost, shooting up 30 percent to $5.45 after the company reported that it has received a Complete Response Letter on its New Drug Application for DEXTENZA.

Intralinks Holdings Inc IL shares were also up, gaining 26 percent to $8.39 following Q2 results. Intralinks Holdings posted a Q2 net loss of $0.14 per share on revenue of $73 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

CIBER, Inc. CBR shares dropped 32 percent to $1.00 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results.

Shares of Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. SGMO were down 24 percent to $5.20 after the company posted a wider-than-expected Q2 loss.

Bravo Brio Restaurant Group, Inc. BBRG was down, falling around 31 percent to $5.46 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results and lowered its FY16 outlook.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.49 percent to $40.63 while gold traded up 0.25 percent to $1,368.10.

Silver traded down 0.79 percent Thursday to $20.31, while copper fell 1.66 percent to $2.16.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.50 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.39 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.39 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.47 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.36 percent, while U.K. shares rose 1.59 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims increased by 3,000 to 269,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting initial jobless claims to total 265,000 in the week.

U.S. factory orders declined 1.5 percent for June, versus economists’ expectations for a 1.80 percent drop.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks 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.