Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Office Depot Plans To Close 400 Stores

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Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.48 percent to 16,451.05 while the NASDAQ tumbled 0.32 percent to 4,124.88. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.36 percent to 1,877.92.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Tuesday morning, the energy sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Forest Oil (NYSE: FST) and Swift Energy Co (NYSE: SFY). Financial shares declined around 0.60 percent in Tuesday's trading.

Meanwhile, top decliners in the sector included United Fire Group (NASDAQ: UFCS), down 4.9 percent, and Hilltop Holdings (NYSE: HTH), off 3.7 percent.

Top Headline
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) reported upbeat first-quarter results and announced its plans to close at least 400 stores in the United States. For the full year, Office Depot also lifted its adjusted operating income outlook to at least $160 million versus $140 million. Office Depot posted a quarterly net loss of $109 million, or $0.21 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $17 million, or $0.06 per share.

Excluding items, it earned $0.07 per share. Its sales rose to $4.35 billion from $2.72 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.03 per share on sales of $4.28 billion.

Equities Trading UP
Qualys (NASDAQ: QLYS) shares shot up 8.24 percent to $20.68 after the company reported upbeat quarterly results.

Shares of Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) got a boost, shooting up 15.95 percent to $4.84 after the company reported upbeat quarterly earnings and announced its plans to close at least 400 stores in the US.

Bill Barrett (NYSE: BBG) shares were also up, gaining 8.36 percent to $26.83 on Q1 results. The company reported its Q1 adjusted loss of $0.05 per share. Mizuho Securities upgraded Bill Barrett from Neutral to Buy and lifted the price target from $27.00 to $29.00.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Advanced Energy Industries (NASDAQ: AEIS) were 13.88 percent to $18.42 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results and issued a weak Q2 outlook.

athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) shares tumbled 11.41 percent to $112.32 after Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn said that athenahealth's stock price could decline as much as 80%.

Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) was down, falling 9.83 percent to $34.94 on the end of lockup period.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.44 percent to $99.92, while gold traded down 0.12 percent to $1,307.70.

Silver traded up 0.33 percent Tuesday to $19.64, while copper fell 0.05 percent to $3.05.

Eurozone
European shares were lower today.

The eurozone's STOXX 600 slipped 0.28 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.20 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.32 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX tumbled 0.66 percent and the French CAC 40 declined 0.58 percent while UK shares dropped 0.41 percent.

Economics
The ICSC-Goldman same-store sales dropped 2% for the week ended May 3 versus the earlier week.

The US trade deficit declined 3.6% to $40.4 billion in March. However, economists were expecting a deficit of $40.0 billion. US exports rose 2.2% to $193.9 billion in March, while imports increased 1.7% to $234.3 billion.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index gained 3.1% y/y.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills and 3-year notes.

Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Eurozone Futures Commodities Forex Global Econ #s Economics Intraday Update Markets Movers Tech

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