Mid-Day Market Update: Snap Tumbles After Q1 Report; Sangamo Shares Surge

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.57 percent to 20,823.37 while the NASDAQ declined 0.75 percent to 6,083.35. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.64 percent to 2,384.40.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector was the top gainer in the US market on Thursday. Top gainers in the sector included TETRA Technologies, Inc. TTI, CARBO Ceramics Inc. CRR, and Atwood Oceanics, Inc. ATW.

In trading on Thursday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.98 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Macy's Inc M, down 13 percent, and Dillard's, Inc. DDS, down 13 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 45 percent to $6.32 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 27 percent to $3.10 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 18 percent to $9.40. LivePerson posted in-line quarterly earnings, while sales exceeded estimates.

Equities Trading DOWN

ITUS Corp ITUS shares dropped 36 percent to $1.09. ITUS disclosed that it has priced its 3.5 million share offering at $1.05 per share.

Shares of Snap Inc SNAP were down around 19 percent to $18.64. Snap reported a Q1 loss of $2.31 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $0.14 per share. Its sales for the quarter came in at $149.64 million Daily active users grew to 166 million, up from 122 million in the year-ago period. JP Morgan lowered the price target on Snap from $24.00 to $20.00, while Citigroup cut the price target from $27.00 to $24.00.

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc CNAT was down, falling around 20 percent to $5.61. Conatus Pharmaceuticals priced its underwritten public offering of 5,200,000 shares at $5.50 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.56 percent to $48.07 while gold traded up 0.62 percent to $1,226.50.

Silver traded up 0.42 percent Thursday to $16.275, while copper rose 0.70 percent to $2.512.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.73 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.88 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.94 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.67 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.71 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.11 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.

Supplies of natural gas increased 45 billion cubic feet for the week ended May 5, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a gain of 53 billion cubic feet.

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.