Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; J M Smucker Earnings Top Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.03 percent to 21,180.69 while the NASDAQ declined 0.06 percent to 6,293.86. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03 percent to 2,432.29.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial sector was the top gainer in the US market on Thursday. Top gainers in the sector included First Bancorp FBP, Greene County Bancorp GCBC, and LNB Bancorp Inc LNBB.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 1.02 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Companhia Paranaense de Energia (ADR) ELP, down 12 percent, and American Midstream Partners LP AMID, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

J M Smucker Co SJM reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

JM Smucker posted Q4 earnings of $1.80 per share on revenue of $1.78 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $1.72 per share on revenue of $1.77 billion.

JM Smucker expects FY 2018 earnings of $7.85 to $8.05 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $7.93 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Nordstrom, Inc. JWN shares shot up 13 percent to $45.70 following news that management is exploring a go-private deal.

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA got a boost, shooting up 10 percent to $138.26 after issuing a strong revenue forecast for FY18. The company’s CFO Maggie Wu drew expects 45 percent to 49 percent revenue growth in FY2018.

Hydrogenics Corporation HYGS shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $8.77 after the company disclosed that it has signed a purchase and license agreement valued at over USD50 million for 1,000 fuel cell bus power modules.

Equities Trading DOWN

Invacare Corporation IVC shares dropped 15 percent to $11.50. Invacare reported a proposed offering of $100 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2022.

Shares of NewLink Genetics Corp NLNK were down 28 percent to $7.61. NewLink Genetics disclosed that Genentech intends to return the rights of IDO inhibitor GDC-0919 back to the company.

MidSouth Bancorp, Inc. MSL was down, falling around 13 percent to $12.25. MidSouth Bancorp reported pricing of upsized offering of 4.58 million shares of common stock at $12 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.04 percent to $45.70 while gold traded down 1.21 percent to $1,277.50.

Silver traded down 1.36 percent Thursday to $17.38, while copper rose 1.47 percent to $2.589.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.04 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.33 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.99 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.33 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.02 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.22 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims declined 10,000 to 245,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 240,000 last week.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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