Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 2%; Abercrombie & Fitch Shares Surge Following Strong Q2 Results

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.05 percent to 21,802.37 while the NASDAQ declined 0.16 percent to 6,268.52. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.11 percent to 2,441.26.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the healthcare shares climbed by 0.35 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included China Cord Blood Corp CO, up 11 percent, and Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU, up 8 percent.

In trading on Thursday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.48 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) CHU, down 8 percent, and Mobil'nye Telesistemy PAO (ADR) MBT down 2 percent.

Top Headline

Dollar Tree, Inc. DLTR posted upbeat quarterly earnings and increased its FY17 guidance.

Dollar Tree earned $0.99 per share in the second quarter on revenue of $5.28 billion. However, Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.87 per share on revenue of $5.24 billion.

Dollar Tree now projects expects full-year net sales of $22.07 billion to $22.28 billion, versus its prior forecast of $21.95 billion to $22.25 billion. The company now projects full-year profit of $4.44 to $4.60 per share, compared to its earlier outlook of $4.17 to $4.43 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Signet Jewelers Ltd. SIG shares shot up 17 percent to $60.80 as the company posted stronger-than-expected Q2 profit and reported a deal to buy R2Net for $328 million in cash.

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF got a boost, shooting up 14 percent to $10.96 after the company posted a narrower-than-expected Q2 loss.

Guess?, Inc. GES shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $14.84 after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Wednesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

1-800-Flowers.Com Inc FLWS shares dropped 7 percent to $8.30 as the company posted weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

Shares of J M Smucker Co SJM were down 10 percent to $107.54 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results and lowered its FY18 forecast.

Seadrill Ltd SDRL was down, falling around 32 percent to $0.181. Seadrill reported a Q2 net loss of $158 million on revenue of $577 million. The company also disclosed that it will likely file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on or before 12th September 2017.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.09 percent to $47.40 while gold traded down 0.22 percent to $1,291.90.

Silver traded down 0.47 percent Thursday to $17.045, while copper rose 1.76 percent to $3.056.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.16 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.19 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.51 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.05 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.04 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.33 percent.

Economics

Fed Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi are projected to speak at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium.

U.S. initial jobless claims rose 2,000 to 234,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 238,000 last week.

U.S. existing home sales declined 1.3 percent to an annual rate of 5.44 million for July. However, economists expected a 5.57 million rate.

Domestic supplies of natural gas increased 43 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 18, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 45 billion cubic feet.

The Kansas City Fed composite index rose to 16.00 for August, versus prior reading of 10.00.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.