Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Goldman Sachs Earnings Miss Estimates

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.21 percent to 20,593.92 while the NASDAQ declined 0.01 percent to 5,856.23. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.07 percent to 2,347.30.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from GNC Holdings Inc GNC and Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. CORE.

In trading on Tuesday, healthcare shares fell by 0.65 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. CBLI, down 19 percent, and Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. INFI, down 6 percent.

Top Headline

Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs said it earned $5.15 per share in the quarter on revenue of $8.03 billion; Analysts were expecting the company to earn $5.31 per share on revenue of $8.45 billion.

The company also raised its quarterly dividend from $0.65 per share to $0.75 per share and authorized the repurchase of an additional 50 million shares of its stock.

Equities Trading UP

Interpace Diagnostics Group Inc IDXG shares shot up 78 percent to $3.81. Interpace Diagnostics reported the coverage of ThyraMIR with UnitedHealthcare.

Shares of GNC Holdings Inc GNC got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $8.49 after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Tile Shop Hldgs, Inc. TTS shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $22.10 after the company posted upbeat Q1 earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

Inpixon INPX shares dropped 15 percent to $2.80. Inpixon posted a Q4 GAAP net loss of $7.51 per share and disclosed that the FBI has renewed contract with Inpixon Federal.

Shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARNA were down around 15 percent to $1.25. Arena Pharmaceuticals priced its 60 million share offering at $1.15 per share.

Barracuda Networks Inc CUDA was down, falling around 16 percent to $19.69. Barracuda posted upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.63 percent to $52.32 while gold traded down 0.46 percent to $1,285.90.

Silver traded down 0.83 percent Tuesday to $18.36, while copper fell 1.61 percent to $2.568.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.87 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.74 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index tumbled 1.16 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.63 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.29 percent while U.K. shares fell 2.02 percent.

Economics

U.S. housing starts dropped 6.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.22 million in March. However, economists were expecting a 1.25 million rate.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 1.2 percent for the first two weeks of April versus March.

U.S. industrial production increased 0.5 percent for March, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.7 percent growth.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.