Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; Conagra Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.02 percent to 20,666.07 while the NASDAQ fell 0.03 percent to 5,820.06. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.05 percent to 2,349.65.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the financial sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services LTS and LNB Bancorp Inc LNBB.

In trading on Thursday, telecommunications services shares fell 0.45 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Frontier Communications Corp FTR, down 5 percent, and China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) CHL, down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Conagra Brands Inc CAG reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Conagra reported Q3 earnings of $0.48 per share on revenue of $1.98 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.44 per share on revenue of $1.98 billion.

Equities Trading UP

HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc HTGM shares shot up 51 percent to $3.22 after the company disclosed that it has obtained CE marking in the EU for HTG EdgeSeq ALKPlus Assay.

Shares of Versar Inc. VSR got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $2.02 after the company disclosed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Transatlantic Afghanistan District, has awarded a new multi-year contract to the company valued at over $2.3 million.

Cancer Genetics Inc CGIX shares were also up, gaining 20 percent to $3.47 after the company posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss.

Equities Trading DOWN

Tandem Diabetes Care Inc TNDM shares dropped 18 percent to $ 1.27. Tandem Diabetes Care priced 18 million share offering at $1.25 per share.

Shares of Alphatec Holdings Inc ATEC were down around 10 percent to $2.40 as the company reported a $18.9 million private placement.

Heat Biologics Inc HTBX was down, falling around 16 percent to $0.867. Heat Biologics priced its 5 million share offering at $0.80 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.54 percent to $47.78 while gold traded down 0.01 percent to $1,252.70.

Silver traded up 0.44 percent Thursday to $17.66, while copper fell 0.11 percent to $2.63.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.20 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.36 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.31 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.18 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.07 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.06 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims rose 15,000 to 258,000 in the latest week. Economists projected jobless claims to reach 240,000 in the week.

New-home sales rose 6.1 percent to an annual rate of 592,000 in February. Economists were expecting a 571,000 annual pace.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for March will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak in Washington at 12:30 p.m. ET.

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

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak in Chicago at 7:00 p.m. ET.