Mid-Afternoon Market Update: MSG Networks Falls On Downbeat Earnings; XPEL Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.92% to 26200.52 while the NASDAQ rose 0.85% to 8016.32. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.8% to 2,923.82.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares rose 1.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Target Corporation TGT, up 19%, and XPEL, Inc. XPEL, up 26%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

Target Corporation TGT reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter and raised FY19 EPS guidance.

Target reported second-quarter earnings of $1.82 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.62. The company reported quarterly sales of $18.42 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $18.34 billion. Target raised fiscal year 2019 guidance from $5.75-$6.05 to $5.90-$6.20.

Equities Trading UP

SemiLEDs Corporation LEDS shares shot up 27% to $2.8601 after the company announced that Xian Chang Ma would buy 680,000 of the company shares at $3 per share.

Shares of XPEL, Inc. XPEL got a boost, shooting up 26% to $8.45 after the company announced results for its second quarter.

Waitr Holdings Inc. WTRH shares were also up, gaining 35% to $1.8652 after Tilman Fertitta a company director bought 1 million shares at $1.43 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

American Resources Corporation AREC shares tumbled 40% to $1.2601 after the company reported proposed public offering of common stock and warrants.

Shares of Cree, Inc. CREE were down 16% to $49.19 after the company issued Q1 EPS and sales guidance below analyst estimates.

MSG Networks Inc. MSGN was down, falling 13% to $14.71 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $55.63, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,512.60.

Silver traded down 0.3% Wednesday to $17.10, while copper fell 0.1% to $2.577.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.21%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.97%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.77%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.3% and the French CAC 40 rose 1.7% while UK shares rose 1.11%.

Economics

U.S. existing home sales rose 2.5% to an annual rate of 5.42 million in July. Economists were expecting a 5.39 million rate.

U.S. crude supplies dropped 2.7 million barrels for the week ended August 16, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a fall of 3.1 million barrels. Inventories of gasoline rose 300,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles gained 2.6 million barrels last week.

The Federal Open Market Committee released minutes of its latest meeting.