Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Finish Line Beats Q4 Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.45 percent to 17,424.07 while the NASDAQ declined 0.49 percent to 4,745.73. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.53 percent to 2,025.92. Leading and Lagging Sectors Thursday morning, utilities shares gained by 0.17 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. CWCO, up 2 percent, and El Paso Electric Company EE, up 1 percent. In trading on Thursday, financial shares dipped by 1.32 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Genworth Financial Inc GNW, down 6 percent, and Apollo Global Management LLC APO, down 5 percent. Top Headline Finish Line Inc FINL reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Thursday. Finish Line posted adjusted earnings of $0.83 per share on revenue of $580.3 million. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.80 per share on revenue of $567.85 million Equities Trading UP Mercury Systems Inc MRCY shares shot up 12 percent to $18.47 after the company agreed to acquire the embedded security, RF and Microwave and custom microelectronics businesses of Microsemi Corporation MSCC. Shares of KB Home KBH got a boost, shooting up 6 percent to $13.91 as the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter on Wednesday. TiVo Inc. TIVO shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $9.06. The New York Times reported that Tivo and Rovi Corporation ROVI are in merger talks. Equities Trading DOWN Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc PTLA shares dropped 22 percent to $22.45 after announcing Phase III Betrixaban results. Shares of Spark Energy Inc SPKE were down 14 percent to $20.92. Spark Energy reported Q4 GAAP EPS of $(0.01) and adjusted EBITDA of $16.3 million. Sigma Designs Inc SIGM was down, falling around 16 percent to $6.58. Sigma Designs reported Q4 adjusted earnings of $0.02 per share on revenue of $51.5 million. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 1.91 percent to $39.03, while gold traded down 0.26 percent to $1,222.40. Silver traded up 0.15 percent Thursday to $15.30, while copper fell 0.69 percent to $2.22. Eurozone European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 1.18 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 1.12 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 1.32 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX slipped 1.26 percent, and the French CAC 40 dipped 1.77 percent, while U.K. shares fell 1.32 percent. Economics U.S. durable-goods orders declined 2.8 percent in February, versus economists' expectations for a 2.9 percent drop. U.S. jobless claims came in little changed at 265,000 in the latest week. However, economists were projecting claims to reach 268,000 in the week. The Markit Services PMI rose to 51.00 in March, versus a prior reading of 49.70. However, economists were expecting a reading of 51.30.