Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Best Buy Tops Q4 Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 2.35% to 26325.12 while the NASDAQ fell 2.64% to 8743.73. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.35% to 3043.28.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares slipped by just 0.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Chesapeake Utilities Corporation CPK, up 4%, and NiSource Inc. NI, up 2%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 3.9%.

Top Headline

Best Buy Co Inc BBY reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and raised its quarterly dividend from $0.50 to $0.55 per share.

Best Buy reported quarterly earnings of $2.9 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.75 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $15.196 billion, which exceeded the analyst consensus estimate of $15.06 billion.

Best Buy said it expects Q1 enterprise sales of $9.1 billion to $9.2 billion and adjusted earnings of $1 to $1.05 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Co-Diagnostics, Inc. CODX shares shot up 86% to $16.56. Co-Diagnostics reported $4.2 million registered direct offering priced at the market at $9 per share. Shares of several vaccine companies are trading higher on renewed coronavirus fears.

Shares of Allied Healthcare Products, Inc. AHPI got a boost, shooting 85% to $6.79 after surging around 8% on Wednesday.

GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. GCAP shares were also up, gaining 66% to $5.87 after the company agreed to be acquired by INTL FCStone for $6 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Whiting Petroleum Corporation WLL shares tumbled 34% to $1.485 after the company reported a loss for its fourth quarter. Shares of several oil and gas companies are also trading lower as growing coronavirus fears continued to hamper oil demand outlook.

Shares of Digimarc Corporation DMRC were down 31% to $18.31 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results.

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. SPCE was down, falling 25% to $21.68 after the company reported Q4 net loss of $72.743 million versus a loss of $49.752 million in the same quarter last year. The company also reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results. Credit Suisse downgraded Virgin Galactic from Outperform to Neutral.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 2.5% to $47.53, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,651.50.

Silver traded up 0.9% Thursday to $18.00, while copper fell 0.6% to $2.556.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 2.4% the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 2%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.8% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 2.2%, and the French CAC 40 fell 2.2% while UK shares fell 2%.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders fell 0.2% in, versus a revised 2.9% rise in December.

U.S. economy expanded at an annual pace of 2.1% in the fourth quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 2.1% rise.

Initial jobless claims rose 8,000 to 219,000 in the latest week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 212,000.

The pending sales index increased 5.2% for January.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for February is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans is set speak at 11:30 p.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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