Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Higher; Restaurant Brands Beats Q4 Estimates

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.07 percent to 25,124.02 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.24 percent to 7,315.80. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.21 percent to 2,713.42.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the industrial shares climbed 0.6 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Insperity Inc NSP up 16 percent, and NL Industries Inc NL up 6 percent.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 0.4 percent.

Top Headline

Restaurant Brands International Inc QSR reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Restaurant Brands earned $0.68 cents per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $1.385 billion. However, analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.56 per share on revenue of $1.15 billion.

Equities Trading UP

NuVasive, Inc. NUVA shares got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $56.05 after Financial Times reported that Smith & Nephew is in talks to buy NuVasive for over $3 billion.

Shares of Spi Energy Co Ltd SPI shot up 48 percent to $4.00 after Nasdaq granted the company's request for continued listing.

Insperity, Inc. NSP shares were also up, gaining 15 percent to $127.32 after the company reported Q4 results and issued strong earnings forecast.

Equities Trading DOWN

CNA Financial Corporation CNA shares dropped 8 percent to $43.10 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results.

Shares of Auris Medical Holding AG EARS were down 17 percent to $0.3632 after the company announced that Nasdaq informed the company that it did not meet Nasdaq's deadline to regain compliance with Nasdaq listing rules.

Avaya Holdings Corp. AVYA was down, falling around 12 percent to $15.59 after the company reported Q1 sales of $748 million down from $765 million year over year and the company said it expects Q2 sales of $740 million to $765 million versus the $761 million estimate.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.83 percent to $52.28 while gold traded down 0.78 percent to $1,308.20.

Silver traded down 0.88 percent Monday to $15.67, while copper fell 0.57 percent to $2.7945.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.9 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.9 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.5 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.9 percent, and the French CAC 40 surged 1.1 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.6 percent.

Economics

On the economics calendar Monday, there is no important data due out.