Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Hibbett Sports Beats Q4 Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.90 percent to 25,727.88 while the NASDAQ declined 0.95 percent to 7,764.68. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.80 percent to 2,832.09.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the utilities shares climbed 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Avangrid Inc AGR up 2 percent, and American Electric Power Company Inc AEP up 2 percent.

In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 2.2 percent.

Top Headline

Hibbett Sports, Inc. HIBB reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter and issued strong FY20 earnings outlook.

Hibbett reported quarterly earnings of $0.57 per share on sales of $306 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.38 per share on sales of $279.49 million.

Hibbett Sports expects FY20 adjusted earnings of $1.80 to $2 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $1.75 per share. The company reported the retirement of President and CEO Jeff Rosenthal.

 

Equities Trading UP

Immutep Limited IMMP shares got a boost, shooting up 23 percent to $2.7627 following news the company won a patent grant for eftilagimod alpha as a cancer treatment.

Shares of Hibbett Sports, Inc. HIBB shot up 24 percent to $22.38 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter and issued strong FY20 earnings outlook.

Sorrento Therapeutics Inc SRNE shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $5.81 after the company announced the merger of Scilex and Semnur.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc CNAT shares dropped 55 percent to $1.30 following concerning results from a Phase 2b trial in NASH fibrosis. Analysts at SunTrust and H.C. Wainwright downgraded the stock.

Shares of Zuora Inc ZUO were down 11 percent to $21.65 following Q1 results and FY20 adjusted earnings guidance which came in slightly below the analyst estimate.

CorePoint Lodging Inc. CPLG was down, falling around 19 percent to $11.50 after the company reported Q4 EPS of $(3.17), versus $2.07 last year, and provided FY19 FFO guidance of $1.86-$2.04 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.4 percent to $59.14 while gold traded up 0.4 percent to $1,311.90.

Silver traded down 0.1 percent Friday to $15.43, while copper fell 1.2 percent to $2.871.

 

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.8 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.2 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.3 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.8 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.3 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.4 percent.

Economics

The IHS Markit flash manufacturing PMI dropped to 52.5 in March, compared to a reading of 53 in February. However, services PMI declined to 54.8 versus 56.

U.S. existing home sales rose 11.8 percent for February at an annual rate of 5.51 million.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 1.2 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent increase.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The U.S. Treasury budget report for February will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic is set to speak in San Francisco, CA at 9:30 p.m. ET.