Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Bank of America Earnings Beat Expectations

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.15 percent to 25,302.24 while the NASDAQ declined 0.94 percent to 7,426.32. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.41 percent to 2,755.87.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the real estate shares climbed 0.64 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Realty Investors, Inc. ARL up 3 percent, and Washington Prime Group Inc. WPG up 2 percent.

In trading on Monday, information technology shares fell 1.12 percent.

Top Headline

Bank of America Corp BAC reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Bank of America posted quarterly earnings of $0.66 per share on revenue of $22.8 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.63 per share on sales of $22.89 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Krystal Biotech, Inc. KRYS shares shot up 19 percent to $18.72 after reporting 'positive' interim results from placebo-controlled Phase 1/2 clinical trial of KB103.

Shares of Cambium Learning Group, Inc. ABCD got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $14.40 after the company agreed to be acquired for $14.50 per share by Veritas Capital.

AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc ACRX shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $4.62 after the company disclosed that the FDA Advisory Committee voted 10-3 in favor of approving the company's DSUVIA for acute pain management.

Equities Trading DOWN

CPI Aerostructures, Inc. CVU shares dropped 15 percent to $7.22 after the company reported a $12 million common stock offering.

Shares of NutriSystem Inc. NTRI were down 8 percent to $34.19. DA Davidson downgraded Nutrisystem from Neutral to Underperform and lowered the price target from $40 to $28.

Sears Holdings Corp SHLD was down, falling around 16 percent to $0.34. On Monday, management declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced an immediate CEO change for the 126-year-old company. CEO Edward Lampert will remain chairman of the board, but executive leadership will be granted to a new Office of CEO occupied by CFO Robert Riecker, Chief Digital Officer Leena Munjal, and President of Apparel and Footwear Gregory Ladley.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.76 percent to $71.88 while gold traded up 1 percent to $1,234.20.

Silver traded up 0.99 percent Monday to $14.78, while copper rose 0.62 to $2.818.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.09 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.08 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.37 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.56 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.07 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.21 percent.

Economics

U.S. retail sales rose 0.5 percent for September, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.7 percent increase.

The Empire State manufacturing index rose to 21.10 for October, versus prior reading of 19.00. However, economists were expecting a reading of 20.40.

U.S. business inventories rose 0.5 percent for October, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent gain.

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