Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Lower; Kellogg Beats Q2 Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.04 percent to 22,007.09 while the NASDAQ declined 0.45 percent to 6,333.88. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.26 percent to 2,471.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector proved to be a source of strength for the market.

In trading on Thursday, technology shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.45 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included 3D Systems Corporation DDD, down 19 percent, and Sierra Wireless, Inc. (USA) SWIR, down 16 percent.

Top Headline

Kellogg Company K reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Kellogg reported Q2 earnings of $0.98 per share, on sales of $3.187 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.92 on revenue of $3.16 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Stamps.com Inc. STMP shares shot up 28 percent to $193.55 as the company posted upbeat Q2 results and raised its FY17 outlook.

Shares of Ubiquiti Networks Inc UBNT got a boost, shooting up 23 percent to $66.17 as the company reported strong preliminary results for its fourth quarter.

Solaredge Technologies Inc SEDG shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $27.10 after the company posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results.

Equities Trading DOWN

CPI Card Group Inc PMTS shares dropped 31 percent to $1.75 following weak quarterly results. Barrington Research downgraded CPI Card Group from Market Perform to Underperform.

Shares of Agile Therapeutics Inc AGRX were down 26 percent to $3.39. Agile Therapeutics priced offering of 5.33 million shares at $3.75 per share.

CRH Medical Corp CRHM was down, falling around 24 percent to $2.83 after the company disclosed financial and operating results for the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2017.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.67 percent to $49.92 while gold traded down 0.47 percent to $1,272.40.

Silver traded down 0.79 percent Thursday to $16.60, while copper fell 0.19 percent to $2.879.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.07 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.06 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.43 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.16 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.54 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.92 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims dropped 5,000 to 240,000 in the latest week, the Labor Department reported. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 242,000 last week.

The Markit services PMI rose to 54.70 in July, versus previous reading of 54.20. Economists estimated a reading of 54.20.

U.S. factory orders rose 3.00 percent for June, versus economists’ expectations for a 2.90 percent growth.

The ISM non-manufacturing index dropped to 53.90 for July, versus prior reading of 57.40. Economists projected a reading of 57.00.

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

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