Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Turns Positive; Anika Therapeutics Shares Fall Following Disappointing Q1 Results

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.18 percent to 23,968.67 while the NASDAQ declined 0.02 percent to 7,098.84. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.02 percent to 2,635.10.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the materials shares rose 0.49 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ryerson Holding Corporation RYI, up 11 percent, and Synalloy Corporation SYNL up 10 percent.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares tumbled 0.84 percent.


Top Headline

Kellogg Company K reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

Kellogg posted Q1 earnings of $1.19 per share on sales of $3.401 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $1.08 per share on sales of $3.29 billion.


Equities Trading UP

STAAR Surgical Company STAA shares shot up 26 percent to $21.03 after reporting upbeat Q1 results.

Shares of Integrated Media Technology Limited IMTE got a boost, shooting up 56 percent to $34.2425. The nano-cap low-float stock skyrocketed over 1,300 percent on Wednesday on no company specific news which would support the surge. The move higher is consistent with what was seen in other low-float stocks over the past few months.

Xspand Products Lab Inc XSPL shares were also up, gaining 27 percent to $6.37. Xspand Products priced its IPO at $5 per share.


Equities Trading DOWN

Heat Biologics, Inc. HTBX shares dropped 49 percent to $1.26 after the company priced its $18,000,000 public offering.

Shares of Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. HOS were down 23 percent to $2.82 following wider-than-expected Q1 loss.

Anika Therapeutics, Inc. ANIK was down, falling around 28 percent to $33.40 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results.


Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.63 percent to $68.36 while gold traded up 0.56 percent to $1,312.90.

Silver traded up 0.58 percent Thursday to $16.47, while copper rose 0.46 percent to $3.0825.


Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.73 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.50 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.83 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.88 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.50 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.54 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims increased 2,000 to 211,000 in the latest week. Economists projected claims to reach 225,000 last week.

The trade deficit fell 15 percent to $49 billion in March versus $57.7 billion in February.

U.S. nonfarm productivity gained 0.7 percent for the first quarter.

The Markit services PMI rose to 54.6 in April from 54 in March.

U.S. factory orders rose 1.6 percent for March.

The ISM non-manufacturing index declined to 56.8 in April, versus 58.8 in March.

Posted In: NewsEurozoneCommoditiesGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMid-Afternoon Market Update
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