Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Delta Air Posts In-Line Profit

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.50 percent to 19,854.16 while the NASDAQ declined 0.57 percent to 5,532.07. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.38 percent to 2,266.57.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained around 0.56 percent in trading on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, technology shares fell by 0.58 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Numerex Corp. NMRX, down 12 percent, and Insight Enterprises, Inc. NSIT, down 7 percent.

Top Headline

Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL reported in-line earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales exceeded expectations.

Delta Air Lines posted Q4 earnings of $0.82 per share on revenue of $9.46 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.82 per share on revenue of $9.40 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Straight Path Communications Inc STRP shares shot up 53 percent to $48.16 after the company reported a settlement with the FCC related to its wireless spectrum licenses.

Shares of Transgenomic Inc TBIO got a boost, shooting up 194 percent to $0.850 after the company reported a licensing agreement with LifeLabs.

Histogenics Corp HSGX shares were also up, gaining 30 percent to $1.98 after the company reported positive MRI data from NeoCart Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials on Wednesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

DragonWave, Inc.(USA) DRWI shares dropped 19 percent to $2.35. DragonWave reported a Q3 loss of $0.72 per share on revenue of $10.2 million.

Shares of Vista Outdoor Inc VSTO were down around 16 percent to $31.88. Vista Outdoor projects a non-cash intangible asset impairment charge in its Hunting and Shooting Accessories reporting unit for the third quarter.

MYOS RENS Technology Inc MYOS was down, falling around 33 percent to $4.59 after surging 424.62 percent on Wednesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.28 percent to $54.27 while gold traded up 0.44 percent to $1,201.90.

Silver traded up 0.28 percent Thursday to $16.88, while copper rose 1.53 percent to $2.65.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.27 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.39 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.24 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.67 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.15 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.15 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims gained 10,000 to 247,000 in the latest week. However, economists projected claims to reach 255,000 in the week.

The import price index rose 0.4 percent in December, while export prices increased 0.3 percent in the month.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart is set to speak at 12:30 p.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President Bullard will speak at 1:15 p.m. ET.

The U.S. Treasury budget report for December is schedule for release at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is set to speak in Washington, D.C. at 7:00 p.m. ET.