Courtesy of Benzinga.
Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.74 percent to 16,755.45 while the NASDAQ tumbled 0.96 percent to 4,420.00. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.81 percent to 1,954.09.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
In trading on Thursday, utilities shares dropped by just 0.35 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT), up 3.8 percent, and Exelon (NYSE: EXC), up 1.1 percent.
Technology sector was the top decliner in the market on Thursday. Top losers in the sector included QuickLogic (NASDAQ: QUIK), Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU), and L-3 Communications Holdings (NYSE: LLL).
Top Headline
Kellogg Co (NYSE: K) reported in-line earnings for the second quarter and cut its full-year forecast.
The Battle Creek, Michigan-based company posted quarterly earnings of $295 million, or $0.82 per share, down 15% versus the year-ago quarter. Excluding special items, it earned $1.02 per share.
Its sales declined 0.8% to $3.7 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.02 per share on revenue of $3.705 billion.
Equities Trading UP
Vistaprint NV (NASDAQ: VPRT) shares shot up 25.35 percent to $47.29 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and issued a strong FY15 outlook.
Shares of LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN) got a boost, shooting up 18.31 percent to $12.02 after the company reported upbeat quarterly results and issued a strong revenue forecast.
Journal Communications (NYSE: JRN) shares were also up, gaining 23.74 percent to $10.84. The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) and Journal Communications have agreed to merge their broadcasting operations and spin off their newspapers businesses into a separate publicly held company.
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of A10 Networks (NYSE: ATEN) were down 15.78 percent to $10.89 on downbeat Q2 results.
On Assignment (NYSE: ASGN) shares tumbled 22.21 percent to $27.15 after the company reported Q2 earnings of $0.56 per share on revenue of $468.60 million. Baird downgraded the stock from Outperform to Neutral.
L-3 Communications Holdings (NYSE: LLL) was down, falling 15.15 percent to $101.51 after the company reported weak Q2 results and lowered its FY14 earnings guidance. L-3 Communications also reported that it had fired 4 employees on accounting misconduct at aerospace business.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.89 percent to $99.38, while gold traded down 0.71 percent to $1,287.70.
Silver traded down 0.37 percent Thursday to $20.52, while copper rose 0.03 percent to $3.24.
Eurozone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.98 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index tumbled 1.85 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.33 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 1.49 percent and the French CAC 40 dropped 1.11 percent while UK shares fell 0.34 percent.
Economics
US jobless claims increased by 23,000 to 302,000 in the week ended July 26. However, economists were estimating claims to reach 308,000 in the week.
The Chicago PMI declined to 52.6 in July, versus 62.6 in June. Economists were expecting a reading of 63.5.
The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills.
Data on farm prices for July will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Downgrades Eurozone Futures Commodities M&A
