Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Centennial Resource Development Falls Following Downbeat Q4 Results; FTE Networks Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.01 percent to 26,089.30 while the NASDAQ declined 0.07 percent to 7,549.04. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.01 percent to 2,795.71.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the energy shares rose 0.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included North American Construction Group Ltd NOA up 10 percent, and McDermott International Inc MDR up 9 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 0.5 percent.

Top Headline

Macy's Inc M reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and disclosed a multi-year restructuring plan.

Macy's said it earned $2.73 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $8.455 billion versus expectations of $2.53 per share and $8.45 billion. Comparable sales on owned stores rose 0.4 percent in the quarter while comparable sales for owned plus licensed stores were up 0.7 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Telaria, Inc. TLRA shares got a boost, shooting up 31 percent to $4.73 after the company beat Q4 EPS and sales estimates. The company also provided Q1 and FY19 sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Shares of FTE Networks Inc FTNW shot up 155 percent to $2.78 after the company said it won $116 million of contracts in January and February.

NanoViricides Inc NNVC shares were also up, gaining 34 percent to $0.56 after the company announced an agreement with TheraCour to develop TheraCour's drugs to treat varicella zoster virus.

Equities Trading DOWN

SunOpta, Inc. STKL shares dropped 41 percent to $2.40 after the company reported downbeat Q4 earnings and reported the termination of David J. Colo as President, CEO.

Shares of Alta Mesa Resources, Inc. AMR were down 64 percent to $0.33 after the company reported preliminary Q4 results and Guggenheim downgraded the stock from Buy to Sell.

Centennial Resource Development Inc CDEV was down, falling around 22 percent to $9.90 after the company missed Q4 EPS and sales estimates.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1 percent to $55.43 while gold traded down 0.1 percent to $1,328.30.

Silver traded down 0.05 percent Tuesday to $15.92, while copper rose 0.2 percent to $2.955.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.39 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.25 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.11 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.31 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.13 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.45 percent.

Economics

U.S. housing starts dropped 11.2 percent in December to an annual rate of 1.08 million.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 1.4 percent during the first three weeks of February versus January.

The FHFA house price index rose 0.3 percent for December.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index rose 4.2 percent year-on-year in December, versus a 4.6 percent increase in November.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose to 131.40 in February, versus a prior revised reading of 121.70. However, economists expected a reading of 124.70.