Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Lower; T-Mobile Beats Q4 Views

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.07 percent to 20,398.62 while the NASDAQ declined 0.12 percent to 5,756.95. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.13 percent to 2,325.29.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed by 0.23 percent in trading on Tuesday.

In trading on Tuesday, basic materials shares fell by 0.50 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd NAK, down 19 percent, and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. (ADR) SHI, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

T-Mobile US Inc TMUS reported better-than-expected fourth quarter results.

T-Mobile posted Q4 earnings of $0.45 per share on revenue of $10.18 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.29 per share on revenue of $9.84 billion.

Equities Trading UP

ZAIS Group Holdings, Inc. ZAIS shares shot up 72 percent to $3.53. Christian Zugel disclosed a 7.5 percent stake in Zais Group.

Shares of Cynosure, Inc. CYNO got a boost, shooting up 28 percent to $65.88. Hologic, Inc. HOLX announced plans to buy Cynosure for $1.65 billion.

RetailMeNot Inc SALE shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $10.80 after the company posted stronger-than-expected Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aviragen Therapeutics Inc AVIR shares dropped 33 percent to $0.700 after the company reported top-line results from its Phase 2b SPIRITUS trial of vapendavir. Ladenburg Thalmann downgraded Aviragen Therapeutics from Buy to Neutral.

Shares of Gevo, Inc. GEVO were down around 29 percent to $1.65. Gevo reported the pricing of $11.9 million public offering of common stock and warrants and signed a Letter of Intent with HCS Holding for the commercial supply of isooctane.

Uni-Pixel Inc UNXL was down, falling around 26 percent to $1.09. UniPixel reported a public offering of common stock and warrants to purchase common stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.33 percent to $54.14 while gold traded up 0.72 percent to $1,234.60.

Silver traded up 1.06 percent Tuesday to $18.01, while copper fell 0.49 percent to $2.77.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.09 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.20 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.29 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.09 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.10 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.04 percent.

Economics

The Producer Price Index rose 0.6 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent growth.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index increased 0.4 percent during the first two weeks of February versus January.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is set to testify before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 a.m. ET.

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

Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart is set to speak in Huntsville, Ala. at 12:50 p.m. ET.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak in Houston, Texas at 1:00 p.m. ET.