Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Deere Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.56 percent to 18,493.09 while the NASDAQ declined 0.41 percent to 5,218.50. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.54 percent to 2,175.13.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the cyclical consumer goods & services shares slipped by just 0.08 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included New York & Company, Inc. NWY, and America's Car-Mart, Inc. CRMT.

In trading on Friday, basic materials shares tumbled by 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Olympic Steel, Inc. ZEUS, down 10 percent, and AK Steel Holding Corporation AKS, down 6 percent.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter and also boosted revenue forecast for the full year.

The company reported net earnings of $488.8 million, down from $511.6 million while EPS grew modestly from $1.53 to $1.55 due to lower share count. This was sharply higher than the Street estimates of $0.94 a share.

Similarly, Deere reported worldwide net sales of $6.724 billion representing a drop of 11 percent on year-over-year basis. Going forward, the company expects equipment sales to fall about 10 percent for fiscal 2016 and about 8 percent for the fourth quarter. For fiscal 2016, Deere now expects net income to be about $1.350 billion.

Equities Trading UP

America's Car-Mart, Inc. CRMT shares shot up 14 percent to $36.99 following Q1 results. America's Car-Mart reported quarterly earnings of $0.87 per share on revenue of $146 million.

Shares of New York & Company, Inc. NWY got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $2.32 as the company posted upbeat quarterly results.

CSP Inc. CSPI shares were also up, gaining 9 percent to $9.10. CSP reported Q3 earnings of $0.32 per share on revenue of $26.9 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Gordmans Stores, Inc. GMAN shares dropped 17 percent to $1.14 after the company posted downbeat Q2 results and issued a weak forecast for the current quarter.

Shares of China Finance Online Co. (ADR) JRJC were down 17 percent to $4.32. China Finance Online reported Q2 earnings of $0.50 per share on revenue of $11 million.

Stein Mart, Inc. SMRT was down, falling around 10 percent to $8.09 as the company reported weak results for the second quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.29 percent to $48.75 while gold traded down 1.02 percent to $1,343.40.

Silver traded down 2.20 percent Friday to $19.31, while copper fell 0.14 percent to $2.18.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.71 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 1.31 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.47 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.42 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.86 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.09 percent.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Friday.