Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Constellation Brands Beats Q2 Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.72 percent to 26,634.08 while the NASDAQ declined 1.12 percent to 7,934.91. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.64 percent to 2,906.85.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the financial shares rose 1.12 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included MBT Financial Corp. MBTF up 4 percent, and GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. GCAP up 3 percent.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell 1.38 percent.

Top Headline

Constellation Brands, Inc. STZ reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Constellation Brands posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.87 per share on sales of $2.3 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $2.60 per share on sales of $2.25 billion. Constellation Brands raised its FY19 adjusted earnings guidance to $9.60-$9.75 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Vaxart, Inc. VXRT shares shot up 137 percent to $6.98. Vaxart will present new data from the Phase 2 Challenge Study of its H1 influenza tablet vaccine at IDWeek 2018 on October 6.

Shares of I-AM Capital Acquisition Company IAM got a boost, shooting up 56 percent to $10.14. I-AM Capital Acquisition reported postponement of its special meeting.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $6.77 after the company announced Wednesday afternoon it has appointed a Special Committee to review strategic alternatives. The company said it's received interest from "multiple parties," including company chairman Leonard Riggio, who has pledged to vote his shares in favor of any transaction the special committee recommends.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pain Therapeutics, Inc. PTIE shares dropped 52 percent to $1.39 after the company reported $3.5 million NIH grant award for Alzheimer's study. The company sees Phase II study initiation for Alzheimer's treatment in Q4'18.

Shares of Telaria, Inc. TLRA were down 32 percent to $2.56 after the company lowered its FY18 sales guidance.

Rudolph Technologies, Inc. RTEC was down, falling around 15 percent to $20.40 after the company lowered its third-quarter adjusted EPS guidance from 30-40 cents to 22-25 cents.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.98 percent to $75.66 while gold traded up 0.40 percent to $1,207.70.

Silver traded up 0.72 percent Thursday to $14.775, while copper rose 0.69 to $2.8535.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.72 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.23 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.33 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.06 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.91 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 8,000 to 207,000 in the latest week. However, Economists were expecting a 213,000 reading.

U.S. factory orders rose 2.3 percent for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 2.1 percent gain.

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

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