Mid-Day Market Update: NASDAQ Down Over 1%; WSI Industries Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.19 percent to 25,924.85 while the NASDAQ declined 1.06 percent to 7,910.60. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.57 percent to 2,872.19.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the industrials shares rose 0.52 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included AeroVironment, Inc. AVAV up 14 percent, and Argan, Inc. AGX up 12 percent.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell 0.91 percent.

Top Headline

Navistar International Corp NAV reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed views. The company also raised its FY18 sales guidance.

Navistar posted quarterly earnings of $1 per share on revenue of $2.61 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.90 per share on revenue of $2.66 billion.

The company now expects fiscal 2018 revenue of $10.1 billion to $10.4 billion, versus earlier forecast of $9.75 billion to $10.25 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARWR shares shot up 55 percent to $21.86 after the company disclosed that ARO-HBV was generally well-tolerated in HBV patients. The company said up to 4.0 log10 reduction in HBsAg was observed following 3 doses of ARO-HBV.

Shares of Cloudera, Inc. CLDR got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $17.20 after reporting a second-quarter earnings beat. The company issued upbeat Q2 and 2019 guidance.

WSI Industries, Inc. WSCI shares were also up, gaining 33 percent to $6.87 after Polaris Industries PII announced plans to acquire WSI Industries for $7 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Lands' End, Inc. LE shares dropped 21 percent to $19.8001 after reporting downbeat Q2 results.

Shares of EnSync, Inc. ESNC were down 19 percent to $0.28 after the company late Wednesday announced an agreement to raise $2.9 million in a registered direct offering.

REV Group, Inc. REVG was down, falling around 17 percent to $13.08 after the company reported downbeat Q3 results and lowered its FY18 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.01 percent to $68.71 while gold traded up 0.68 percent to $1,209.50.

Silver traded up 0.25 percent Thursday to $14.255, while copper rose 1.65 to $2.653.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.32 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.67 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.16 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.1357 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.09 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.65 percent.

Economics

U.S. private sector employers added 163,000 jobs in August, versus 217,000 jobs in July, payrolls processor ADP reported. However, economists projected a gain of 182,000 new jobs.

Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week is schedule for release at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Data on nonfarm productivity and unit labor costs for the second quarter will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The IHS Markit final U.S. services PMI declined to a reading of 54.8 in August, compared to 56 in July.

U.S. factory orders declined 0.8 percent for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent drop.

The ISM's non-manufacturing index rose to 58.50 for August, versus prior reading of 55.70. Economists projected a reading of 57.00.

Domestic supplies of natural gas increased 63 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 31, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a rise of 62 billion cubic feet.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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