Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Korn Ferry Reports Upbeat Q1 Results

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.03% to 35,111.48 while the NASDAQ fell 0.27% to 15,332.05. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.02% to 4,519.29.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 40,280,090 cases with around 650,530 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,096,710 cases and 441,410 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,914,230 COVID-19 cases with 584,100 deaths. In total, there were at least 221,964,340 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,586,680 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares gained 0.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Sunnova Energy International Inc. NOVA, up 3% and Eversource Energy ES up 1.5%.

In trading on Wednesday, materials shares fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

Korn Ferry KFY reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter and issued strong sales forecast for the current quarter.

Korn Ferry reported quarterly earnings of $1.37 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.07 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $588.10 million, versus expectations of $540.51 million.

Korn Ferry said it sees Q2 earnings of $1.30 to $1.44 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.92 per share.

 

Equities Trading UP

Kadmon Holdings, Inc. KDMN shares shot up 73% to $9.15. Sanofi announced Wednesday it has agreed to acquire New York-based biopharma Kadmon in a $1.9 billion all-cash deal.

Shares of Arqit Quantum Inc. ARQQ got a boost, shooting 29% to $14.63 after jumping 22% on Tuesday.

ICU Medical, Inc. ICUI shares were also up, gaining 30% to $267.18. ICU Medical agreed to acquire Smiths Group plc's Medical division in a transaction that will create an IV therapy company and simplify customer workflow.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. OSG shares tumbled 17% to $2.24. Overseas Shipholding, last month, said it swung to a Q2 loss.

Shares of Alector, Inc. ALEC were down 17% to $22.30. Alector announced that Shehnaaz Suliman and Robert Paul will be stepping down from their respective roles as President & chief operating officer and chief medical officer.

Mechel PAO MTL was down, falling 14% to $4.28 after surging over 56% on Tuesday. The company recently reported Q2 results, including a 43% quarter-over-quarter revenue growth.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $69.46, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,789.20.

Silver traded down 1.1% Wednesday to $24.115 while copper fell 0.6% to $4.2545.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.7%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.2% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.9%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4%, French CAC 40 fell 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.3%.

France's trade deficit increased to EUR 6.96 billion in July from revised EUR 6.05 billion in the prior month, while payroll employment in the private sector increased 1.4% to 19.84 million in the second quarter. Retail sales in Italy slipped 0.4% in July.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index surged 16.5% year-over-year during the first week of September.

The number of job openings increased by 749,000 to a new series high of 10.934 million in July, the Labor Department said.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams is set to speak at 1:10 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will release its recent Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for July will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here