Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Sell Off As Retailers Disappoint The Street Across The Board

Related BZSUM Market Wrap For May 20: Markets Sharply Lower On Fed Talk, Disappointing Earnings Mid-Day Market Update: Dick's Sporting Slides After Weak Forecast; Aeroflex Shares Rise

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.89 percent to 16,365.44 while the NASDAQ tumbled 0.82 percent to 4,091.51. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.74 percent to 1,882.84.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
In trading on Tuesday, technology shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.12 percent. Leading the sector was strength from Aeroflex Holding (NYSE: ARX) and Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ). Cyclical consumer goods & services shares declined around 0.71 percent in Tuesday's trading.

Top losers in the sector included Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS), down 16.6 percent, and Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS), off 12 percent.

Top Headline
Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) reported a drop in its fiscal first-quarter profit. Staples posted its quarterly earnings of $96.2 million, or $0.15 per share, versus $169.9 million, or $0.26 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding certain items, it earned $0.18 per share. Its sales declined 2.8% to $5.65 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.21 per share on revenue of $5.61 billion. Staples expects Q2 adjusted earnings of $0.09 to $0.14 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.15 per share.

Equities Trading UP
Aeroflex Holding (NYSE: ARX) shares shot up 25.63 percent to $10.44 after the company agreed to be acquired by Cobham plc for $10.50 per share, or $1.46 billion.

Shares of Ophthotech (NASDAQ: OPHT) got a boost, shooting up 25.78 percent to $39.54 after the company reported that it has entered into an ex-US licensing and commercialization deal with Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

Insmed Incorporated (NASDAQ: INSM) was on the rise as well, gaining 7.68 percent to $14.10 after the company announced some positive phase 2 clinical trial results in a study evaluating its drug Arikayce.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Dick's Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) were 17.44 percent to $43.89 after the company reported quarterly results and cut its FY14 earnings forecast.

Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) shares tumbled 12.47 percent to $11.72 after the company reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings and issued a downbeat outlook.

Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) was down as well, dropping 9.70 percent to $7.54 after the Dick's Sporting goods earnings report unveiled a weakness in the golf market which traders applied to Callaway, using it as a catalyst to push the shares lower.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.20 percent to $102.31, while gold traded up 0.06 percent to $1,294.60.

Silver traded up 0.24 percent Tuesday to $19.41, while copper fell 0.76 percent to $3.14.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly lower today.

The eurozone's STOXX 600 dropped 0.01 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.29 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.34 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX tumbled 0.09 percent and the French CAC 40 declined 0.39 percent while UK shares slipped 0.60 percent.

Economics
The ICSC-Goldman same-store sales index declined 1.3% in the week ended Saturday versus the prior week.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index gained 1% in the first two weeks of May versus April.

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

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