Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Titan International Drops On Earnings Miss; Natural Grocers Shares Surge

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.36 percent to 25,417.17 while the NASDAQ declined 0.04 percent to 7,799.66. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.31 percent to 2,835.88.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the consumer staples shares climbed 1.32 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. NGVC up 27 percent, and Medifast, Inc. MED up 24 percent.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 0.55 percent.

Top Headline

DISH Network Corporation DISH reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Earnings came in at $0.83 per share, beating market estimates of $0.71 per share. Sales came in at $3.6 billion, beating estimates of $3.44 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Medifast, Inc. MED shares shot up 23 percent to $216.01 following upbeat Q2 results.

Shares of Pixelworks, Inc. PXLW got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $4.20 after the company beat Q2 sales estimates.

Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. NGVC shares were also up, gaining 28 percent to $17.15 after reporting upbeat Q3 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Varex Imaging Corporation VREX shares dropped 26 percent to $28.50 after the company posted downbeat third-quarter results.

Shares of Immersion Corporation IMMR were down 26 percent to $10.55 after the company missed Q2 earnings estimates.

Titan International, Inc. TWI was down, falling around 31 percent to $7.025 after the company posted downbeat Q2 earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.90 percent to $68.34 while gold traded up 0.26 percent to $1,223.30.

Silver traded up 0.52 percent Friday to $15.465, while copper rose 0.69 to $2.7565.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.65 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.43 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 0.80 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.55 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.33 percent while U.K. shares rose 1.10 percent.

Economics

The U.S. unemployment rate decreased from 4 percent in June to 3.9 percent in July. The rare sub-4-percent streak began in April. Notably, nonfarm payroll expanded just 157,000 against a 193,000 estimate and June’s 213,000 precedent.

The trade deficit increased 7 percent to $46.3 billion in June, versus a revised $43.2 billion gap in May. Economists were expecting a $46.6 billion deficit.

US Markit services PMI fell to 56.00 for July, versus prior reading of 56.20. However, economists were expecting a reading of 56.20.

The ISM non-manufacturing index dropped to 55.70 for July, versus previous reading of 59.10. However, economists projected a reading of 58.60.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs fell by 2 to 859 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.