Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Clorox Profit Tops Expectations

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.24 percent to 25,003.35 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.35 percent to 7,289.39. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.1 percent to 2,703.76.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the information technology shares climbed 0.6 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Maxwell Technologies Inc. MXWL up 50 percent, and The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. ULTI up 20 percent.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 0.9 percent.

Top Headline

Clorox Co CLX reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and reaffirmed full year EPS guidance.

Clorox delivered earnings of $1.40 per share, beating estimates of $1.31 per share. The company’s revenue came in at $1.473 billion, versus estimates of $1.47 billion.

Equities Trading UP

ZK International Group Co Ltd ZKIN shares got a boost, shooting up 107 percent to $3.35 after the company announced record FY18 revenue of $54.9 million.

Shares of Top Image Systems Ltd. TISA shot up 55 percent to $0.83 after the company entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Kofax for $0.86 per share in cash.

Maxwell Technologies Inc. MXWL shares were also up, gaining 50 percent to $4.60 after Tesla Inc TSLA announced plans to acquire Maxwell Technologies for $4.75 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Check Cap Ltd CHEK shares dropped 26 percent to $2.56 after the company announced an equity offering of 2.91 million shares and warrant units at $2.58 per unit for a total of $7.5 million..

Shares of Medley Management Inc. MDLY were down 31 percent to $3.39 after Nexpoint Advisors proposed merger transaction to Sierra Income Corporation and Medley Capital Corporation boards.

MacroGenics, Inc. MGNX was down, falling around 8 percent to $10.52. Citigroup downgraded Macrogenics from Neutral to Sell and lowered the price target from $22 to $10.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7 percent to $54.85 while gold traded down 0.57 percent to $1,314.60.

Silver traded down 1.5 percent Monday to $15.695, while copper fell 0.6 percent to $2.757.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.1 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.9 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.2 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.5 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.3 percent.

Economics

Data on motor vehicle sales for December will be released today.

U.S. factory orders declined 0.6 percent for November.

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

The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index for January is schedule for release at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester is set to speak in Cleveland, Ohio at 7:30 p.m. ET.