Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; General Mills Sales Beat Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.20 percent to 24,803.16 while the NASDAQ declined 0.09 percent to 6,957.50. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.12 percent to 2,684.79.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the basic materials sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. SCHN and Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (ADR) SID.

In trading on Wednesday, technology shares fell 0.34 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Red Hat Inc RHT, down 6 percent, and Mercadolibre Inc MELI down 4 percent.

Top Headline

General Mills, Inc. GIS reported in-line earnings for its second quarter, while sales exceeded estimates.

General Mills reported Q2 earnings of $0.82 per share on revenue of $4.2 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.82 per share on revenue of $4.09 billion.

General Mills expects FY18 sales growth to be flat to down 1 percent, versus its previous range of down 1 percent to 2 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Net Element International Inc NETE shares shot up 282 percent to $19.88 after the company reported the launch of business unit focused on blockchain.

Shares of Seven Stars Cloud Group Inc SSC got a boost, shooting up 49 percent to $6.43. Seven Stars Cloud confirmed the purchase of Delaware Board of Trade stake for 1.628 million shares of SSC common stock.

Siebert Financial Corp. SIEB shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $16.36 as Overstock issued a release disclosing the purchase of a 1 percent stake in Kennedy Cabot Acquisition.

Equities Trading DOWN

Applied DNA Sciences Inc APDN shares dropped 23 percent to $1.70. Applied DNA reported 2.735 million share offering at a combined effective price of $1.75 per share.

Shares of Stitch Fix Inc SFIX were down 10 percent to $22.40 despite reporting a first quarter earnings and sales beat on its first earnings report as a public company. Stitch Fix also reported second quarter sales guidance ahead of consensus.

Atossa Genetics Inc ATOS was down, falling around 26 percent to $0.230 after the company reported the pricing of 5.3 million share common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.40 percent to $57.79 while gold traded up 0.33 percent to $1,268.40.

Silver traded up 0.63 percent Wednesday to $16.255, while copper rose 1.08 percent to $3.1855.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.13 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.53 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.41 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.30 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 0.29 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.01 percent.

Economics

U.S. existing-home sales gained 5.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.81 million in November. However, economists were expecting a 5.54 million rate.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.