Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Higher; Hormel Foods Sales Miss Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.05 percent to 25,746.01 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.46 percent to 7,924.96. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.22 percent to 2,868.11.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the energy shares rose 1.29 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included EP Energy Corporation EPE up 12 percent, and Pioneer Energy Services Corp. PES up 10 percent.

In trading on Thursday, telecommunication services shares fell 1.76 percent.

Top Headline

Hormel Foods Corp HRL reported in-line earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company also lowered its FY18 sales guidance.

Hormel Foods posted quarterly earnings of $0.39 per share on revenue of $2.359 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.39 per share on revenue of $2.38 billion.

Hormel now projects FY18 sales of $ $9.4 billion to $9.6 billion, versus earlier forecast of $9.7 billion to $10.10 billion.

Equities Trading UP

LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. LX shares shot up 20 percent to $13.3905 after reporting upbeat quarterly earnings.

Shares of Raven Industries, Inc. RAVN got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $46.90 after the company reported strong Q2 results.

Lantronix, Inc. LTRX shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $4.75 after reporting a fourth-quarter earnings beat.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cato Corporation CATO shares dropped 14 percent to $20.46 after the company reported Q2 results.

Shares of Stein Mart, Inc. SMRT were down 9 percent to $2.77. Stein Mart posted Q2 loss of $0.02 per share on sales of $310.94 million. Comps were up 0.7 percent year-over-year and the company said it anticipates low single-digit comps growth in the second half of the year.

Puxin Limited NEW was down, falling around 10 percent to $14.35. Puxin posted a Q2 loss of $0.16 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.12 percent to $67.94 while gold traded down 0.49 percent to $1,197.40.

Silver traded down 1.14 percent Thursday to $14.68, while copper fell 1.24 to $2.66.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.10 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.09 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.40 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 surged 0.13 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.06 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims dropped 2,000 to 210,000 in the latest week. However, economists projected a 215,000 reading.

The IHS U.S. flash services PMI declined to 55.2 for August, versus prior reading of 56. The manufacturing flash PMI dropped to 54.5 in August from 55.3.

New home sales report fell 1.7 percent to an annual rate of 627,000 for July.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for August is schedule for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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