Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Gain; Signet Jewelers Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.10 percent to 26,206 while the NASDAQ gained 0.67 percent to 7,901. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.33 percent to 2,877.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the materials shares rose 0.7 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Aluminum Corporation of China Limited ACH up 7 percent, and Commercial Metals Company CMC up 4 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell 0.5 percent.

Top Headline

Signet Jewelers Ltd. SIG reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter on Wednesday.

Signet reported quarterly earnings of $3.96 per share on sales of $2.155 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $3.82 per share on sales of $2.14 billion. Its same-store sales fell 2 percent during the quarter.

Signet Jewelers said it expects FY20 adjusted earnings of $2.87 to $3.45 per share, on sales of $6.0 billion to $6.1 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. OPTT shares got a boost, shooting up 175 percent to $13.74 after the company announced it won a contract with a leading oil and gas operator for a 12-week paid feasibility study. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Shares of DMC Global Inc. BOOM shot up 20 percent to $61 after the company raised Q1 sales outlook.

Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. APRN shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $1.0753 after appointing Linda Findley Kozlowski as President and CEO of the company. Blue Apron also reaffirmed guidance and says it sees significant improvement in Net Loss and is expected to achieve profitability on adjusted EBITDA basis for Q1 and 2019.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Advaxis, Inc. ADXS shares dropped 30 percent to $4.1150 after the company reported a 2.5 million common shares offering at $4 per share.

Shares of GameStop Corp. GME were down 8 percent to $9.27 after the company reported downbeat sales for its fourth quarter and issued weak guidance for the fiscal year.

IZEA Worldwide, Inc. IZEA was down, falling around 7 percent to $1.1201 after reporting a common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1 percent to $62.59 while gold traded up 0.1 percent to $1,296.00.

Silver traded down 0.1 percent Wednesday to $15.055, while copper rose 1 percent to $2.9335.

 

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.7 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.3 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 1.3 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.7 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.1 percent.

Economics

Private-sector employers added 129,000 jobs in March, the ADP reported. However, economists were expecting a gain of 184,000 jobs.

The final reading of services Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 55.3 in March, versus a preliminary reading of 54.8.

The ISM's non-manufacturing index declined to 56.1 in March, compared to 59.7 in February.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari will speak in Fargo, North Dakota at 5:00 p.m. ET.