Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Kroger Misses Q4 Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.88 percent to 25,446.60 while the NASDAQ declined 0.88 percent to 7,440.19. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.73 percent to 2,751.26.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the utilities shares rose 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included PG&E Corporation PCG up 3 percent, and Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. FGP up 1.2 percent.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell 1.3 percent.

Top Headline

Kroger Co KR reported lower-than-expected EPS and sales results for its fourth quarter.

Kroger said it earned $0.48 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $28.1 billion versus expectations of $0.51 per share and $28.47 billion. Kroger’s same-store sales, excluding fuel, increased 1.9 percent during the quarter.

Kroger expects FY19 earnings of $2.15 to $2.25 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of v$2.16 per share Estimate.

Equities Trading UP

GTx, Inc. GTXI shares got a boost, shooting up 53 percent to $1.40 after the company announced a merger with Oncternal Therapeutics in which GTx shareholders will own 75 percent of the combined company.

Shares of Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. SEEL shot up 99 percent to $3.09 after the company acquired an exclusive license to intellectual property pertaining to a Parkinson's therapy, which was created by UCLA researchers.

Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. BPTH shares were also up, gaining 106 percent to $24.76 on continued strength after the company on Wednesday announced BP1001 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia demonstrated 'meaningful clinical improvement' with an 'excellent' patient safety profile.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bridgepoint Education, Inc. BPI shares dropped 36 percent to $6.07 after the company disclosed that Audit Committee has concluded previously-issued financial statements for 3-, 9-months ended September 30, 2018. Bridgepoint expects Q4 adjusted EPS of $(0.25)-$(0.23) and sales of $93.7 million-$94.7 million.

Shares of Resideo Technologies, Inc. REZI were down 24 percent to $18.92 after the company reported Q4 results.

Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. APVO was down, falling around 44 percent to $0.8280 after reporting a proposed public offering of common stock and warrants.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2 percent to $56.90 while gold traded up 0.1 percent to $1,288.50.

Silver traded down 0.2 percent Thursday to $15.115, while copper fell 0.2 percent to $2.912.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.2 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.6 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.2 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.3 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.2 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.2 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims dropped 3,000 to 223,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 225,000 reading.

U.S. productivity increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter, while unit-labor costs rose 2 percent.

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 Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Member of the Board of Governors Lael Brainard is set to speak in Princeton, NJ at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for January will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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