Mid-Day Market Update: New York & Company Gains On Strong Q2 Results; Olympic Steel Shares Slide

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.19 percent to 18,561.68 while the NASDAQ gained 0.03 percent to 5,241.82. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.23 percent to 2,182.03.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Friday, the cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained by 0.18 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included New York & Company, Inc. NWY, and America's Car-Mart, Inc. CRMT.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares tumbled by 1.35 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Korea Electric Power Corporation (ADR) KEP, down 3 percent, and Chesapeake Utilities Corporation CPK, down 3 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 $36.90 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 12 percent to $2.30 as the company posted upbeat quarterly results.

The GEO Group Inc GEO shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $23.25. Following Thursday's Department of Justice news regarding privately-managed prisons, GEO Group dropped on Thursday, but rebounded Friday after issuing a response to the DoJ.

Equities Trading DOWN

Gordmans Stores, Inc. GMAN shares dropped 8 percent to $1.27 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 15 percent to $4.39. China Finance Online reported Q2 earnings of $0.50 per share on revenue of $11 million.

Olympic Steel, Inc. ZEUS was down, falling around 14 percent to $21.95. KeyBanc downgraded Olympic Steel from Sector Weight to Underweight.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.20 percent to $48.79 while gold traded down 0.74 percent to $1,347.20.

Silver traded down 1.98 percent Friday to $19.35, while copper rose 0.09 percent to $2.18.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.80 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 1.16 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.18 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.55 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.82 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.15 percent.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Friday.