Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower As Coronavirus Spreads; Foot Locker Posts Mixed Q4 Results

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 3.35% to 24903.72 while the NASDAQ fell 2.87% to 8320.77. The S&P also fell, dropping 3.32% to 2879.75. Coronavirus cases continued to rise outside China. South Korea confirmed 256 new coronavirus cases, while China reported an additional 327 new cases. In Italy, total number of infections surged to 650.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares slipped by just 2.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included comScore, Inc. SCOR, up 15%, and MDC Partners Inc. MDCA, up 16%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 4.4%.

Top Headline

Foot Locker, Inc. FL reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Foot Locker reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.63 per share on Friday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.60 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $2.221 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $2.25 billion.

Foot Locker reported fourth-quarter comparable-store sales decreased 1.6%.

 

Equities Trading UP

Ritter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RTTR shares shot up 147% to $0.70 after climbing over 35% on Thursday.

Shares of Allied Healthcare Products, Inc. AHPI got a boost, shooting 142% to $37.48 after climbing around 322% on Thursday. The company manufactures emergency medical supplies and respiratory devices, including 'mass casualty' products, and has attracted investor interest amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Trillium Therapeutics Inc. TRIL shares were also up, gaining 60% to $4.96 in sympathy with Forty Seven after Gilead Sciences approached the company with a takeover offer.


Equities Trading DOWN

Glaukos Corporation GKOS shares tumbled 30% to $42.88 after the company Q4 results. JP Morgan downgraded Glaukos from Overweight to Neutral and lowered the price target from $65 to $55.

Shares of Big Lots, Inc. BIG were down 27% to $16.29 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results. The company also issued Q1 and FY20 earnings guidance below estimates. JP Morgan downgraded Big Lots from Neutral to Underweight and lowered the price target from $31 to $14.

China Online Education Group COE was down, falling 28% to $21.04 after dropping 15.8% on Thursday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 3.8% to $45.28, while gold traded down 1% to $1,626.70.

Silver traded down 3.3% Friday to $17.145, while copper fell 1.7% to $2.5275.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 3% the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 2.6%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 3.3% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 3.7%, and the French CAC 40 fell 3.1% while UK shares fell 3.7%.

Economics

The US trade deficit on goods shrank to $65.5 billion in January, versus $68.7 billion in the prior month. Imports slipped 2.2%, while exports declined 1.0%.

US wholesale inventories fell 0.2% in January, versus a revised 0.3% decline in the prior month.

Personal spending increased 0.2% in January, while personal income climbed 0.6%.

The Chicago PMI climbed to 49 in February, versus a prior reading of 42.9.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment for February will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on farm prices for January will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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