Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Lower; Tyson Foods Tops Q4 Expectations

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.01 percent to 23,418.96 while the NASDAQ declined 0.12 percent to 6,742.68. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.06 percent to 2,580.75.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector proved to be a source of strength for the market.

In trading on Monday, energy shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.49 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Isramco, Inc. ISRL, down 5 percent, and SemGroup Corp SEMG down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Tyson Foods, Inc. TSN reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Tyson Foods posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.43 per share on revenue of $10.15 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.38 per share on revenue of $9.89 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Zymeworks Inc ZYME shares shot up 25 percent to $8.62 after the company disclosed a license agreement with J&J Innovation to develop and commercialize next generation bispecific antibody therapeutics.

Shares of Nektar Therapeutics NKTR got a boost, shooting up 21 percent to $39.33. Nektar Therapeutics and Bristol-Myers Squibb reported the first presentation of data from PIVOT-02 Phase 1/2 study showing potential benefits.

Mattel, Inc. MAT shares were also up, gaining 20 percent to $17.52. Mattel is in talks to sell itself to larger rival Hasbro, Inc. HAS, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Equities Trading DOWN

American Shared Hospital Services AMS shares dropped 12 percent to $2.70. American Shared Hospital Services reported Q3 earnings of $0.02 per share on revenue of $4.61 million.

Shares of Acushnet Holdings Corp GOLF were down 8 percent to $17.70. Acushnet Holdings disclosed a 8.33 million share offing by selling shareholders

Intrexon Corp XON was down, falling around 11 percent to $10.54 after dropping 25.63 percent on Friday..

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.14 percent to $56.82 while gold traded up 0.32 percent to $1,278.30.

Silver traded down 0.01 percent Monday to $16.87, while copper rose 0.11 percent to $3.0795.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.81 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.63 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.82 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.83 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 0.91 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.16 percent.

Economics

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The U.S. Treasury budget report for October will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.