Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; Smucker Issues Downbeat Earnings Outlook

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.08% to 26249 while the NASDAQ rose 0.06% to 9688.46. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.11% to 3119.54.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 1,851,520 cases with around 107,170 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 584,010 COVID-19 cases with 32,540 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 440,530 confirmed cases and 5,370 deaths. In total, there were at least 6,530,060 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 386,390 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. GPMT, up 5%, and Huize Holding Limited HUIZ, up 5%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 1.1%.

Top Headline

J M Smucker Co SJM reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, but issued weak earnings guidance for FY21.

Smucker posted quarterly earnings of $2.57 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $2.29 per share. The company reported sales of $2.09 billion, surpassing the consensus views of $2.06 billion.

Smucker said it expects FY21 adjusted earnings of $7.90 to $8.30 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $8.43 per share. The company projects net sales to drop 1%-2%.

Equities Trading UP

Kezar Life Sciences, Inc. KZR shares shot up 69% to $7.54 after the company announced updated results from the Phase 1b portion of the Phase 1b/2 MISSION study, which is evaluating the safety and tolerability of KZR-616 in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus with and without nephritis, showing overall improvements across seven measures of disease activity.

Shares of Luby's, Inc. LUB got a boost, shooting 86% to $1.57 after the company reported Q2 results and announced it will pursue a sale of its operations and assets.

Genius Brands International, Inc. GNUS shares were also up, gaining 28% to $10.14 on continued momentum. The company's launch of the 'Kartoon Channel' is anticipated for June 15th, while it also announced on May 28th it has met Nasdaq listing criteria.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cassava Sciences, Inc. SAVA shares tumbled 25% to $2.57. Cassava Sciences shares jumped around 68% on Wednesday after the company provided updates regarding its Phase 2b Study of PTI-125.

Shares of Smartsheet Inc. SMAR were down 22% to $45.83 after the company issued Q2 guidance below analyst estimates. However, the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results.

Summit Wireless Technologies, Inc. WISA was down, falling 22% to $2.245 after the company reported the pricing of $5.8 million registered direct offering.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.7% to $36.65, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,713.40.

Silver traded up 0.4% Thursday to $18.03, while copper fell 0.7% to $2.4695.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.5%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.9%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 dropped 0.7%, French CAC 40 fell 0.6% and UK shares fell 0.2%.

Economics

The US trade deficit increased to $49.4 billion in April versus $42.3 billion in March. Exports fell 20.5%, while imports declined 13.7%.

U.S. initial jobless claims rose 1.877 million in the recent week ended May 30th. However, analysts expected claims to total 1.80 million last week.

Labor productivity dropped by an annualized 0.9% in the first quarter, versus a 1.2% gain in the prior period. Unit labor costs in rose an annualized 5.1% in the first quarter.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 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 latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.