Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; KB Home Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.10 percent to 22,358.95 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.22 percent to 6,467.40. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.03 percent to 2,510.75.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares surged 0.54 percent.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell 0.23 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included SCANA Corporation SCG, down 3 percent, and American States Water Co AWR down 3 percent.

Top Headline

KB Home KBH reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its third quarter on Thursday.

KB Home reported Q3 earnings of $0.51 per share on sales of $1.14 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.46 per share on sales of $1.12 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Zogenix, Inc. ZGNX shares shot up 122 percent to $28.60 after the company announced top-line results from a phase 3 clinical trial exploring its drug called ZX008 for the treatment of Dravet syndrome. Zogenix said that its trial met its primary objective of demonstrating that ZX008, when given to patients at a dose of 0.8 mg/kg/day, is superior to a placebo as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of Dravet syndrome in children and young adults based on change in the frequency of convulsive seizures between the six-week baseline observation period and the 14-week treatment period.

Shares of Smart Global Holdings Inc SGH got a boost, shooting up 12 percent to $25.25 after the company reported results for its fourth quarter.

A10 Networks Inc ATEN shares were also up, gaining 15 percent to $7.62 as the company raised its guidance for the third quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation LPX shares dropped 6 percent to $27.03. BMO Capital downgraded Louisiana-Pacific from Market Perform to Underperform.

Shares of Ominto Inc OMNT were down 17 percent to $4.86.

Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd PME was down, falling around 10 percent to $2.87.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.12 percent to $51.50 while gold traded down 0.01 percent to $1,288.60.

Silver traded down 0.46 percent Friday to $16.77, while copper fell 0.49 percent to $2.9665.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.09 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.05 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.21 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.51 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.14 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.81 percent.

Economics

U.S. personal income rose 0.2 percent for August, while consumer spending gained 0.1 percent in August.

The Chicago PMI rose to 65.20 in September, versus prior reading of 58.90. Economists expected a reading of 58.50.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 95.1 in September, compared to 96.8 in August..

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker is set to speak in Philadelphia at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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