Mid-Day Market Update: AXT Rises After Strong Q4 Results; Cyclacel Pharma Shares Tumble

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.12 percent to 20,800.30 while the NASDAQ declined 0.61 percent to 5,824.85. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.07 percent to 2,361.22.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed by 0.85 percent in trading on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares fell by 1.27 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Valhi, Inc. VHI, down 11 percent, and Tredegar Corporation TG, down 11 percent.

Top Headline

Hormel Foods Corp HRL reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its first quarter and lowered its forecast.

Hormel Foods posted Q1 earnings of $0.44 per share on revenue of $2.3 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.45 per share on revenue of $2.3 billion.


Hormel lowered its 2017 earnings forecast to $1.65 to $1.71 per share.


Equities Trading UP

Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc PTX shares shot up 31 percent to $3.58 after receiving a favorable opinion in Zohydro® ER ANDA litigation.

Shares of KEMET Corporation KEM got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $9.89 as the company agreed to acquire NEC TOKIN Corporation.

AXT Inc AXTI shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $7.88 after reporting strong Q4 results.


Equities Trading DOWN

Ocean Rig UDW Inc. ORIG shares dropped 24 percent to $0.820. Ocean Rig UDW reported a Q4 loss of $3.71 billion on revenue of $355.4 million.

Shares of Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc CYCC were down around 21 percent to $4.32. Cyclacel reported that its Phase 3 SEAMLESS study did not meet primary endpoint.

Ocwen Financial Corp OCN was down, falling around 19 percent to $4.37. Ocwen Financial reported a Q4 loss of $0.08 per share on revenue of $323.9 million.


Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.44 percent to $54.36 while gold traded up 1.22 percent to $1,248.30.

Silver traded up 0.68 percent Thursday to $18.15, while copper fell 2.84 percent to $2.67.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.20 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.08 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.37 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.53 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.20 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.42 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims rose 6,000 to 244,000 in the latest week, versus a revised 238,000 in the previous week. Economists expected claims to reach 241,000 for the week.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index dropped to -0.05 in January, versus a prior reading of 0.14. Economists were projecting a reading of 0.10.

U.S. crude supplies gained 600,000 barrels for the week ended February 17, the Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a gain of 3.4 million barrels.

The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

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Posted In: EarningsNewsEurozoneCommoditiesGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMoversMid-Day Market Update
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