Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Lower; Halliburton Profit Tops Estimates

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.21 percent to 21,534.81 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.06 percent to 6,391.25. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.15 percent to 2,468.87.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed by 0.20 percent in the US market on Monday. Top gainers in the sector included Salisbury Bancorp, Inc. SAL, and Pzena Investment Management, Inc. PZN.

In trading on Monday, healthcare shares fell 0.46 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Array Biopharma Inc ARRY, down 4 percent, and Compugen Ltd. (USA) CGEN, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Halliburton Company HAL posted stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Halliburton posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.23 per share, on revenue of $4.96 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.18 per share on sales of $4.86 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc RETA shares shot up 21 percent to $37.57 after the company disclosed initial data from Phase 2 portion of CARDINAL study.

Shares of WebMD Health Corp. WBMD got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $66.00 after the company agreed to be acquired by a KKR portfolio company for $66.50 per share in cash.

Neuroderm Ltd NDRM shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $38.38. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation agreed to acquire NeuroDerm for $39 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Hibbett Sports, Inc. HIBB shares dropped 27 percent to $14.48 after the company issued a weak forecast for the second quarter.

Shares of TearLab Corp TEAR were down 19 percent to $2.71 after climbing 89.77 percent on Friday.

Cal-Maine Foods Inc CALM was down, falling around 9 percent to $33.95 as the company posted a wider-than-expected Q4 loss.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.87 percent to $46.17 while gold traded up 0.26 percent to $1,264.30.

Silver traded up 0.69 percent Monday to $16.57, while copper rose 0.35 percent to $2.732.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.30 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.05 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.42 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.39 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.22 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.97 percent.

Economics

The IHS Markit flash manufacturing PMI climbed to 53.2 in July, versus a reading of 52 in June. Economists expected a reading of 52 for July.

Existing-home sales dropped 1.8 percent in June to an annual rate of 5.52 million. However, economists were projecting a rate of 5.58 million.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.