Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Ralph Lauren Earnings Miss Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.97% to 25238.61 while the NASDAQ fell 0.92% to 9254.73. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.18% to 2997.02.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 1,681,410 cases with around 98,920 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 391,220 COVID-19 cases with 24,510 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 370,680 confirmed cases and 3,960 deaths. In total, there were at least 5,609,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 350,870 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 3.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Essent Group Ltd. ESNT, up 14%, and Premier Financial Bancorp, Inc. PFBI, up 10%.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

Ralph Lauren Corp RL reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Ralph Lauren reported adjusted loss of 68 cents per share on Wednesday, which missed the analyst consensus estimate for earnings of 1 cent per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $1.27 billion, versus the analyst consensus estimate of $1.29 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Euroseas Ltd. ESEA shares shot up 61% to $3.91 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 sales.

Shares of Remark Holdings, Inc. MARK got a boost, shooting 22% to $3.50 after the company highlighted the launch of a new website, RemarkThermal.com.

Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. MRSN shares were also up, gaining 27% to $13.62 after the company reported interim safety, tolerability and efficacy data from the ongoing expansion portion of its Phase 1 study evaluating XMT-1536.

Equities Trading DOWN

TransMedics Group, Inc. TMDX shares tumbled 16% to $13.37 after the company priced 5 million shares common stock offering at $14 per share.

Shares of iMedia Brands, Inc. IMBI were down 15% to $2.85 after the company reported results for its first quarter. iMedia Brands reported quarterly losses of $0.82 per share.

Mmtec, Inc. MTC was down, falling 14% to $1.77. Mmtec shares climbed 86% on Tuesday after reporting its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $33.96, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,697.50.

Silver traded up 0.1% Wednesday to $17.61, while copper fell 0.1% to $2.416.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 surged 0.7%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.3%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.7%, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.8% while UK shares rose 1.4%.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 1.5% during the first three weeks of May versus April.

The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index climbed to -27 in May, versus a reading of -53 in April.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard is set to speak at 12:30 p.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will release its latest Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.