Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Macy's Profit Misses Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.60 percent to 20,818.33 while the NASDAQ declined 0.68 percent to 6,087.65. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.60 percent to 2,385.12.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector was the top gainer in the US market on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.99 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Macy's Inc M, down 12 percent, and Dillard's, Inc. DDS, down 10 percent.

Top Headline

Macy's Inc M reported weaker-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Macy's said it earned $0.24 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $5.33 billion; Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.34 per share on revenue of $5.55 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Sangamo Therapeutics Inc SGMO shares shot up 52 percent to $6.60 after the company reported a strategic collaboration with Pfizer Inc. PFE for Hemophilia A Phase 1/2 therapy program. The company also posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss.

Shares of Real Industry Inc RELY got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $2.95 following Q1 results. Real Industry reported a Q1 loss of $0.43 per share on revenue of $337.1 million.

LivePerson, Inc. LPSN shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $9.25. LivePerson posted in-line quarterly earnings, while sales exceeded estimates.

Equities Trading DOWN

ITUS Corp ITUS shares dropped 36 percent to $1.05. ITUS disclosed that it has priced its 3.5 million share offering at $1.05 per share.

Shares of MannKind Corporation MNKD were down around 23 percent to $1.24 after climbing 42.86 percent on Wednesday. MannKind reported downbeat Q1 results.

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc CNAT was down, falling around 21 percent to $5.53. Conatus Pharmaceuticals priced its underwritten public offering of 5,200,000 shares at $5.50 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.23 percent to $47.91 while gold traded up 0.19 percent to $1,221.20.

Silver traded up 0.05 percent Thursday to $16.215, while copper rose 0.66 percent to $2.51.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.42 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.37 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.23 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.11 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.17 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.03 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims dropped 2,000 to 236,000 for the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims 245,000 to reach in the week.

The Producer Price Index rose 0.5 percent for April, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent growth.

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

The Treasury is set to auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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