Mid-Day Market Update: Abercrombie & Fitch Drops On Wider Loss; Rigel Pharmaceuticals Shares Surge

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.26 percent to 18,455.19 while the NASDAQ declined 0.17 percent to 5,223.54. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.14 percent to 2,177.28.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Tuesday, financial shares gained by 0.37 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included LNB Bancorp Inc LNBB, and Citizens, Inc. CIA.

In trading on Tuesday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.56 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included NTT Docomo Inc (ADR) DCM, down 2 percent, and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (ADR) NTT, down 2 percent.

Top Headline

G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. GIII reported weaker-than-expected results for its second quarter and lowered its full-year guidance.

The company suffered a net loss of $1.3 million or a loss per share of $0.03 compared to net income of $12.5 million or $0.27 a share in the year-ago period. Results included professional fees of about $0.04 a share. Excluding this, it would have earned $0.01 a share, which is sharply lower than the Street estimates of $0.18 a share.

G-III Apparel's net sales witnessed 7 percent drop from $473.9 million to $442.3 million and missed the analysts' predictions of $484.85 million.

Equities Trading UP

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RIGL shares shot up 45 percent to $3.84 as the company disclosed that fostamatinib, its oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor, met the primary endpoint in the final stage trial program for adult chronic/persistent immune thrombocytopenia treatment.

Shares of Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc KPTI got a boost, shooting up 27 percent to $9.04. Jefferies upgraded Karyopharm Therapeutics from Hold to Buy and raised the price target from $9 to $12.

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (USA) POT shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $17.77 after the company confirmed preliminary merger discussions with Agrium Inc AGU.

Equities Trading DOWN

Christopher & Banks Corporation CBK shares dropped 20 percent to $1.65 after the company posted a wider-than-expected loss for the second quarter on Tuesday.

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF were down 21 percent to $18.21 after the company reported a wider-than-expected Q2 loss.

G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. GIII was down, falling around 18 percent to $34.33 after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for its second quarter and lowered its full-year guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.23 percent to $46.40 while gold traded down 0.52 percent to $1,320.20.

Silver traded down 0.87 percent Tuesday to $18.70, while copper fell 0.14 percent to $2.08.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.45 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.80 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.42 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 1.07 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.75 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.25 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index declined 0.3 percent during the first four weeks in August versus July.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index rose 5.10 percent year-over-year in June, versus economists’ expectations for a 5.20 percent gain.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 101.10 in August, versus a prior reading of 97.30. Economists were expecting a reading of 97.30.