Mid-Day Market Update: Titan International Falls Following Downbeat Q4 Results; GTx Shares Jump

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.76 percent to 25,477.36 while the NASDAQ declined 0.53 percent to 7,465.93. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.58 percent to 2,755.48.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the utilities shares rose 0.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included PG&E Corporation PCG up 3 percent, and MGE Energy, Inc. MGEE up 2 percent.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 1.2 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 143 percent to $2.2289 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 68 percent to $2.60 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 362 percent to $55.56 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

Titan International, Inc. TWI shares dropped 19 percent to $5.06 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales.

Shares of Resideo Technologies, Inc. REZI were down 26 percent to $18.22 after the company reported Q4 results.

Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. APVO was down, falling around 43 percent to $0.8510 after reporting a proposed public offering of common stock and warrants.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4 percent to $56.43 while gold traded down 0.1 percent to $1,286.70.

Silver traded down 0.2 percent Thursday to $15.06, while copper fell 0.3 percent to $2.9095.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.6 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.6 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.8 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.5 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.5 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.7 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.

Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 149 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 1, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a drop of146 billion cubic foot.

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.