Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Navistar Profit Tops Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.13 percent to 26,007.39 while the NASDAQ declined 0.58 percent to 7,949.05. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.21 percent to 2,882.49.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the materials shares rose 0.77 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Loma Negra Compania Indl Argentina SA LOMA up 7 percent, and Lithium Americas Corp LAC up 5 percent.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.23 percent.

Top Headline

Navistar International Corp NAV reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed views. The company also raised its FY18 sales guidance.

Navistar posted quarterly earnings of $1 per share on revenue of $2.61 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.90 per share on revenue of $2.66 billion.

The company now expects fiscal 2018 revenue of $10.1 billion to $10.4 billion, versus earlier forecast of $9.75 billion to $10.25 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARWR shares shot up 47 percent to $20.72 after the company disclosed that ARO-HBV was generally well-tolerated in HBV patients. The company said up to 4.0 log10 reduction in HBsAg was observed following 3 doses of ARO-HBV.

Shares of Cloudera, Inc. CLDR got a boost, shooting up 23 percent to $17.675 after reporting a second-quarter earnings beat. The company issued upbeat Q2 and 2019 guidance.

WSI Industries, Inc. WSCI shares were also up, gaining 33 percent to $6.825 after Polaris Industries PII announced plans to acquire WSI Industries for $7 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Lands' End, Inc. LE shares dropped 20 percent to $19.9625 after reporting downbeat Q2 results.

Shares of Misonix, Inc. MSON were down 14 percent to $15.6204. Misonix reported a Q4 net loss of $1.8 million on sales of $8.6 million.

REV Group, Inc. REVG was down, falling around 16 percent to $13.2555 after the company reported downbeat Q3 results and lowered its FY18 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.15 percent to $68.82 while gold traded up 0.76 percent to $1,210.40.

Silver traded up 0.46 percent Thursday to $14.285, while copper rose 1.99 to $2.662.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.03 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.75 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.42 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.17 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.26 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.16 percent.

Economics

U.S. private sector employers added 163,000 jobs in August, versus 217,000 jobs in July, payrolls processor ADP reported. However, economists projected a gain of 182,000 new jobs.

Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week is schedule for release at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Data on nonfarm productivity and unit labor costs for the second quarter will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The IHS Markit final U.S. services PMI declined to a reading of 54.8 in August, compared to 56 in July.

U.S. factory orders declined 0.8 percent for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent drop.

The ISM's non-manufacturing index rose to 58.50 for August, versus prior reading of 55.70. Economists projected a reading of 57.00.

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

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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