Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises Over 50 Points; Exfo Shares Tumble

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.30 percent to 20,721.88 while the NASDAQ rose 0.23 percent to 5,910.96. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.28 percent to 2,367.71.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the financial sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from American Realty Investors, Inc. ARL and Pzena Investment Management, Inc. PZN.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 0.77 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included NRG Energy Inc NRG, down 3 percent, and American Midstream Partners LP AMID, down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Lululemon Athletica inc. LULU reported downbeat earnings for its fourth quarter and issued a weak forecast for the current quarter.

Lululemon posted Q4 adjusted earnings of $1 per share, missing estimate by $0.01 per share. The company expects Q1 earnings of $0.25 to $0.27 per share, with sales of $510 to $515 million.

Equities Trading UP

Interpace Diagnostics Group Inc IDXG shares shot up 11 percent to $2.82. Interpace Diagnostics reported Q4 earnings from continuing operations of $3.25 per share on revenue of $3.122 million.

Shares of Extreme Networks, Inc EXTR got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $7.43 after the company announced plans to purchase data center switching, routing and analytics assets that are currently part of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. BRCD from Broadcom Ltd AVGO, following the sale of Brocade to Broadcom next quarter.

Acasti Pharma Inc ACST shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $1.43 after the company announced plans to proceed with Phase 3 CaPRe program following recent end-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cartesian Inc CRTN shares dropped 25 percent to $0.831. Cartesian reported Q4 adjusted loss of $0.03 per share on revenue of $16.9 million.

Shares of Lululemon Athletica inc. LULU were down around 24 percent to $50.60 after the company reported downbeat earnings for its fourth quarter and issued a weak forecast for the current quarter.

Exfo Inc EXFO was down, falling around 14 percent to $5.14 after the company posted weak quarterly earnings. The company also reported that Philippe Morin will succeed Germain Lamonde as new CEO.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.58 percent to $50.29 while gold traded down 0.79 percent to $1,246.90.

Silver traded down 0.50 percent Thursday to $18.16, while copper rose 0.07 percent to $2.68.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.51 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.37 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.45 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.44 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.41 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.06 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy grew at a pace of 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter. However, economists projected a 1.9 percent growth.

U.S. jobless claims declined 3,000 to 258,000 for the latest week. Economists were expecting claims total 248,000 in the week.

Supplies of natural gas dropped 43 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 24, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

New York Federal Reserve Bank of President William Dudley will speak in Sarasota, Florida at 4:30 p.m. ET.

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