Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls Over 200 Points; Childrens Place Shares Surge Following Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.18 percent to 17,501.00 while the NASDAQ declined 1.25 percent to 4,715.83. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.10 percent to 2,043.95. Leading and Lagging Sectors Basic materials shares gained by 0.9 percent in trading on Tuesday. Top gainers in the sector included Stillwater Mining Company SWC, Stillwater Mining Company CLF, and Methanex Corporation (USA) MEOH. In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares tumbled by 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Middlesex Water Company MSEX, down 4 percent, and York Water Co YORW, down 5 percent. Top Headline Home Depot Inc HD posted better-than-expected results for the first quarter and boosted its earnings forecast for the current year. Home Depot's quarterly earnings rose 19 percent to $1.44 per share from $1.21 per share in the same period of the last year. The retailer's sales increased to $22.8 billion from $20.89 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.35 per share on revenue of $22.35 billion. Going forward, Home Depot said it expects earnings to grow about 14.8 percent to $6.27 a share in the current year from the last year. Similarly, the company expects sales to go up by about 6.3 percent with comp sales growth of 4.9 percent. Equities Trading UP Top Image Systems Ltd. TISA shares shot up 41 percent to $2.20. Top Image Systems reported a Q1 loss of $0.02 per share on revenue of $8.5 million. Shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc HTZ got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $8.69 following filing of purchases by key executives. Hertz's CEO John Tague, CFO Thomas Kennedy and Chief Revenue Officer Jeffrey Foland have bought large share amounts in the company. Childrens Place Inc PLCE shares were also up, gaining 5 percent to $71.50 after the company reported better-than-expected financial results for the first quarter and lifted its earnings forecast for the current year. Equities Trading DOWN Francesca's Holdings Corp FRAN shares dropped 29 percent to $10.62 as the company reported the resignation of Chairman, President and CEO Michael W. Barnes. The company sees comp sales increasing 2 percent year-over-year, with preliminary EPS estimated at $0.17 vs. an average analyst estimate of $0.20. Shares of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. RRGB were down 16 percent to $52.30. Red Robin reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, but missed analysts' sales estimates. LendingClub Corp LC was down, falling around 11 percent to $3.52 after the company confirmed in a regulatory filing that it received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 0.46 percent to $47.94 while gold traded up 0.2 percent to $1,276.70. Silver traded up 0.53 percent Tuesday to $17.25, while copper fell 0.07 percent to $2.09. Eurozone European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.01 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.19 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.34 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.63 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.34 percent, while U.K. shares rose 0.27 percent. Economics U.S. consumer prices rose 0.40 percent for April, versus economists' expectations for a 0.30 percent growth. U.S. housing starts increased 6.60 percent to an annual rate of 1.17 million in April. However, economists were projecting starts to increase at a 1.13 million rate. U.S. industrial production rose 0.70 percent for April, versus economists' expectations for a 0.30 percent gain.