Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Walmart Earnings Top Views

US stocks opened on a downbeat note on Thursday following the release of several economic reports.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.22% to 34,507.50 while the NASDAQ fell 1.33% to 13,936.24. The S&P also fell, dropping, 1.28% to 4,417.73.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 0.3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Vertex Energy, Inc. VTNR, up 4% and Marathon Oil Corporation MRO up 4%.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares tumbled by 1.7%.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc. WMT reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and raised its dividend.

Walmart reported fourth-quarter FY22 sales growth of 0.5% year-on-year, to $152.87 billion, beating the consensus of $151.54 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.53 beat the analyst consensus of $1.50.

Walmart board approved an annual cash dividend for FY23 of $2.24 per share, up 2% from the $2.20 paid for the last fiscal year. The company plans share repurchases of at least $10 billion in FY23.

Equities Trading UP

Inspirato Incorporated ISPO shares shot up 57% to $20.27.

Shares of Marin Software Incorporated MRIN got a boost, shooting 25% to $4.10 after the company announced TikTok integration.

Global-e Online Ltd. GLBE shares were also up, gaining 25% to $46.08 after the company reported Q4 adjusted EBITDA results were higher year over year and better-than-expected Q4 sales results. The company also issued Q1 and FY22 sales guidance above estimates.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Amplitude, Inc. AMPL shares tumbled 50% to $20.71 after the company reported Q4 earnings results and issued Q1 and FY22 sales guidance below estimates.

Shares of Fastly, Inc. FSLY were down 31% to $20.07 after the company reported Q4 earnings results and issued Q1 and FY22 guidance.

Informatica Inc. INFA was down, falling 28% to $20.36 after the company reported downbeat quarterly earnings.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2% to $91.76, while gold traded up 1.2% to $1,896.20.

Silver traded up 0.6% Thursday to $23.74 while copper fell 0.3% to $4.5225.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.6%. The German DAX dropped 0.6%, French CAC 40 fell 0.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.8%.

Italy’s trade surplus shrank to EUR 1.103 billion in December from EUR 6.789 billion in the year-ago month, while Spain's trade deficit widened to €5.3 billion in December from €1.1 billion. Passenger car sales in the European Union dropped 6% year-over-year to 682,596 in January.

Economics

Housing starts in the US dropped 4.1% to an annual rate of 1.638 million in January, while building permits increased 0.7% to an annual rate of 1.899 million.

U.S initial jobless claims increased by 23,000 to 248,000 in the week ended February 12th. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 219,000.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index fell to 16 in February from 23.2 in January.

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

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard is set to speak at 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester will speak at 5:00 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 79,808,640 cases with around 952,600 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,754,310 cases and 510,440 deaths, while Brazil reported over 27,812,210 COVID-19 cases with 640,860 deaths. In total, there were at least 418,657,700 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,871,220 deaths.