Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Genesco Earnings Beat Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.22% to 26,787.05 while the NASDAQ rose 0.03% to 8,119.37. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.19% to 2,981.56.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 0.4% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Realty Investors, Inc. ARL, up 6%, and Realogy Holdings Corp. RLGY, up 5%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

Genesco Inc. GCO reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and raised FY20 EPS guidance. However, Genesco’s sales misses estimates.

Genesco reported second-quarter earnings of 15 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate by 17 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $486.573 million, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $487.93 million.

Genesco raised fiscal year 2020 EPS guidance from $3.35-$3.75 to $3.80-$4.20 versus the $3.67 estimate.

Equities Trading UP

Neon Therapeutics, Inc. NTGN shares shot up 40% to $4.06 after the company announced its breakthrough process for predicting which neoantigens will be presented by MHC class II molecules in the tumor microenvironment was published in the scientific journal, Immunity.

Shares of DocuSign, Inc. DOCU got a boost, shooting up 20% to $55.35 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 sales results.

Genesco Inc. GCO shares were also up, gaining 18% to $41.77 after the company reported upbeat Q2 earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

Domo, Inc. DOMO shares tumbled 34% to $16.76 after the company issued Q3 and FY20 EPS and sales guidance below analyst estimates. Credit Suisse also downgraded the stock from Outperform to Neutral and lowered the price target from $45 to $20.

Shares of Avid Bioservices, Inc. CDMO were down 14% to $6.06 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS results.

MRC Global Inc. MRC was down, falling 11% to $11.36 after the company issued Q3 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.5% to $55.48, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,514.30.

Silver traded down 2.9% Friday to $18.27, while copper fell 0.6% to $2.625.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.3%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.6% and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.1% while UK shares fell 0.1%.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 130,000 new jobs in August. However, economists were expecting a gain of 158,000 jobs. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7% for August.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak in Zurich, Switzerland at 12:30 p.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.