Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Momo Rises On Upbeat Q4 Results; Valhi Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.22 percent to 25,595.72 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.6 percent to 7,603.74. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.43 percent to 2,795.13.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the communication services shares rose 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Momo Inc. MOMO up 13 percent, and Gravity Co., Ltd. GRVY up 9 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, industrial shares fell by 0.7 percent.

Top Headline

Dicks Sporting Goods Inc DKS reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Dick's Sporting reported quarterly earnings of $1.22 per share on sales of $2.49 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.06 per share on sales of $2.48 billion. Sales declined to $2.49 billion from $2.66 billion, while same-store sales dropped 2.2 percent in the quarter.

For the full year, Dick's expects EPS of $3.15 to $3.35 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $3.34.

Equities Trading UP

Momo Inc. MOMO shares got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $36.56 after the company reported higher-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales.

Shares of Stitch Fix, Inc. SFIX shot up 28 percent to $34.52 after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter on Monday.

ENDRA Life Sciences Inc. NDRA shares were also up, gaining 39 percent to $2.6456 after reporting full-year 2018 earnings of $(2.17), up from $(1.95) in 2017.

Equities Trading DOWN

Zafgen, Inc. ZFGN shares dropped 35 percent to 2.9801 after the company disclosed that it has suspended IND Filing plans for Zgn-1258 based on non clinical finding in long-term toxicology. The company also reported Chief Medical Officer Dennis Kim resigned. A replacement was not mentioned. The company also reported a narrower-than-expected Q4 loss.

Shares of Valhi, Inc. VHI were down 31 percent to $3.0001 after the company reported Q4 EPS of $0.06, down from $0.30 last year. The company also filed a prospectus for the resale, from time to time, of up to 14.4 million of its common stock shares.

AgroFresh Solutions, Inc. AGFS was down, falling around 17 percent to $4.05 following weak quarterly earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1 percent to $56.84 while gold traded up 0.6 percent to $1,299.40.

Silver traded up 1.1 percent Tuesday to $15.44, while copper rose 1 percent to $2.93.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.06 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.11 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.03 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.17 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.08 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.29 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index increased 0.5 point to a reading of 101.7 in February.

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent increase.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 0.3 percent during the first week of March versus February.