Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Conn's Profit Tops Estimates

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.29 percent to 25,890.68 while the NASDAQ declined 0.42 percent to 8,075.75. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.25 percent to 2,894.19.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, the utilities shares rose 0.78 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cadiz Inc. CDZI up 17 percent, and PG&E Corporation PCG up 5 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, telecommunication services shares fell 0.98 percent.

Top Headline

Conn's Inc CONN reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Conn's posted quarterly earnings of $0.57 per share on revenue of $384.62 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.44 per share on revenue of $384.09 million.

Equities Trading UP

TravelCenters of America LLC TA shares shot up 33 percent to $5.80 after the company agreed to sell Minit Mart convenience store business for approximately $330.8 million to EG Group.

Shares of Recro Pharma, Inc. REPH got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $7.68 following regulatory update for IV Meloxicam. Recro Pharma disclosed that after Type A meeting with the FDA, the company now anticipates resubmitting NDA for IV Meloxicam by the end of september.

Ocean Rig UDW Inc. ORIG shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $30.68. Transocean Ltd. RIG announced plans to acquire Ocean Rig UDW for approximately $2.7 billion in cash and stock.

Equities Trading DOWN

Conn's, Inc. CONN shares dropped 11 percent to $36.50. Conn's reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Shares of Seagate Technology plc STX were down 9 percent to $48.847. Evercore ISI Group downgraded Seagate from In-Line to Underperform and lowered the price target from $55 to $45.

Zai Lab Limited ZLAB was down, falling around 7 percent to $21.05. Zai Lab on Sunday announced a $150 million ADS offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.93 percent to $71.15 while gold traded down 0.59 percent to $1,199.60.

Silver traded down 2.38 percent Tuesday to $14.21, while copper fell 2.43 to $2.606.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.86 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.53 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.27 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 1.27 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.53 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.53 percent.

Economics

The final reading of IHS Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI rose to 54.7 in August, compared to a reading of 55.3 in July.

U.S. construction spending rose 0.1 percent for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent increase.

The ISM manufacturing index rose to 61.3 for August, versus a reading of 58.1 for July.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 4-week bills at 1:00 p.m. ET.