Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Hormel Foods Earnings Top Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.52% to 26338.15 while the NASDAQ rose 0.22% to 8,037.60. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.31% to 2,933.40.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Federal National Mortgage Association FNMA, up 10%, and Freddie Mac FMCC, up 9%.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares rose by just 0.01%.

Top Headline

Hormel Foods Corporation HRL reported better-than-expected third-quarter EPS and sales results. The company also reaffirmed 2020 EPS and sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Hormel Foods reported third-quarter earnings of 37 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 36 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $2.291 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.29 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Viveve Medical, Inc. VIVE shares shot up 32% to $0.1615 after the company signed an exclusive agreement with Salient Medical to distribute the Viveve System to physicians and healthcare providers in Canada.

Shares of Cemtrex, Inc. CETX got a boost, shooting up 29% to $2.34 after the company reported the complete sale of its EMS subsidiary.

Net Element, Inc. NETE shares were also up, gaining 45% to $4.77 after the company disclosed that its subsidiary, Unified Payments, is entering the $13 billion property management industry through its partnership with VIP Systems.

Equities Trading DOWN

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. CLSD shares tumbled 45% to $0.6890 after the FDA requested stability data for XIPERE. The company said it expects to receive a complete Complete Response Letter and plans to resubmit its New Drug Application in Q1 of 2020.

Shares of Avinger, Inc. AVGR were down 32% to $1.1365. Avinger priced 3,813,559 share underwritten public offering of common stock at $1.18 per share.

Retrophin, Inc. RTRX was down, falling 27% to $12.72 after the company reported its Phase 3 FORT study of Fosmetpantotenate did not meet its primary or secondary endpoints.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $56.06, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,506.10.

Silver traded down 1.2% Thursday to $16.945, while copper fell 1% to $2.5595.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.5%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.3%. Meanwhile, the German DAX fell 0.1% and the French CAC 40 fell 0.3% while UK shares fell 0.6%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims fell 12,000 to 209,000 for the latest week. Economists were expecting a reading of 215,000.

The IHS Markit manufacturing flash PMI declined to 49.9 in August, compared to prior reading of 50.4. Services flash PMI slipped to 50.9 in August from 53.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.5% for July.

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

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

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

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