Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Foot Locker Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.26 percent to 25,723.41 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.49 percent to 7,917.38. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.29 percent to 2,865.35.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the energy shares rose 0.90 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ur-Energy Inc. URG up 8 percent, and CNOOC Limited CEO up 6 percent.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell 0.42 percent.

Top Headline

Foot Locker, Inc. FL reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Foot Locker posted quarterly earnings of $0.75 per share on revenue of $1.782 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.70 per share on revenue of $1.76 billion. Its same-store sales rose 0.5 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd. FFHL shares shot up 9 percent to $2.54 after the company reported a year-over-year increase in Q2 EPS and sales.

Shares of Autodesk, Inc. ADSK got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $156.25 following a Q2 earnings beat.

Splunk Inc. SPLK shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $122.535 following strong Q2 earnings. The company also issued strong Q3 guidance and raised 2018 sales guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Hibbett Sports, Inc. HIBB shares dropped 30 percent to $20.625 after the company reported downbeat results for its second quarter and lowered its FY19 forecast.

Shares of Grupo Supervielle S.A. SUPV were down 20 percent to $7.35 after reporting Q2 results.

China Biologic Products Holdings, Inc. CBPO was down, falling around 14 percent to $86.50 after the company announced sale of 5.85 million new shares, totalling 14.9% of outstanding shares. China Biologic Products disclosed that it has received a letter from CITIC Capital withdrawing its preliminary non-binding offer.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.12 percent to $68.59 while gold traded up 0.49 percent to $1,199.80.

Silver traded up 0.57 percent Friday to $14.725, while copper rose 0.82 to $2.6995.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.23 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.44 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.68 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.20 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.42 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.14 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders fell 1.7 percent for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent drop.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.