Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Alcoa Misses Q3 Views

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.51 percent to 18,235.60 while the NASDAQ declined 0.55 percent to 5,299.15. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.55 percent to 2,151.67.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares rose by 0.08 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, basic materials shares fell by 1.24 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Alcoa Inc AA, down 10 percent, and Gold Fields Limited (ADR) GFI, down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Alcoa Inc AA reported lower than estimated results for the third quarter and provided a tepid outlook for demand for the remainder period of the year.

The aluminum maker reported net income of $106 million, or net income attributable to Alcoa of $166 million, or $0.33 a share. In comparison, the company earned $44 million, or $0.06 a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted EPS came in at $0.32. Analysts projected earnings of $0.35 per share.

Alcoa's sales fell from $5.57 billion to $5.21 billion thus missing the estimates of $5.33 billion. Sequentially too, sales fell from $5.3 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Staffing 360 Solutions Inc STAF shares shot up 14 percent to $1.41. Staffing 360 reported a Q1 net loss of $1.3 million on sales of $47.8 million.

Shares of Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MNTA got a boost, shooting up 8 percent to $12.69. Barclays upgraded Momenta Pharmaceuticals from Equal-Weight to Overweight and raised the price target from $13.00 to $19.00.

Nova Lifestyle Inc NVFY shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $4.45 as the company disclosed that it has signed a framework agreement to supply products to a Hong Kong and Malaysian company for $15 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Rent-A-Center Inc RCII shares dropped 32 percent to $8.78. Rent-A-Center warned that its profit for the third quarter would fall short of expectations. The company expects both GAAP and adjusted EPS between $0.05 and $0.15 for the third quarter. This is significantly lower than the Street estimate of $0.39.

Shares of Illumina, Inc. ILMN were down 24 percent to $140.23 after the company preannounced Q3 revenues short of estimates. The company’s Q4 revenue projection also came in short of estimates.

Luxfer Holdings PLC (ADR) LXFR was down, falling around 15 percent to $9.85 after the company issued a weak earnings forecast for the third quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.37 percent to $51.54 while gold traded down 0.11 percent to $1,259.00.

Silver traded down 0.22 percent Tuesday to $17.62, while copper fell 0.46 percent to $2.19.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.07 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.23 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.36 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.28 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.15 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.02 percent.

Economics

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.