Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Gains 50 Points; Glaukos Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.23 percent to 22,208.83 while the NASDAQ declined 0.36 percent to 6,437.02. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.08 percent to 2,496.33.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the utilities shares surged 0.47 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Southern Co SO, up 2 percent, and National Fuel Gas Co. NFG, up 2 percent.

In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares fell 0.51 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included United States Steel Corporation X, down 5 percent, and Pope Resources A Delaware LP POPE down 4 percent.

Top Headline

United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter on Wednesday.

United Natural Foods posted Q4 adjusted earnings of $0.72 per share on revenue of $2.34 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.70 per share on sales of $2.36 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. HALO shares shot up 18 percent to $15.61. Bristol-Myers and Halozyme disclosed a collaboration and license agreement using Halozyme's ENHANZE technology. The company also announced the licensing of its ENHANZE to Roche. Halozyme Therapeutics raised its FY sales outlook.

Shares of Autoliv Inc. ALV got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $127.63. Autoliv initiated strategic review to consider separation of business segments into Passive Safety and Electronics.

Beazer Homes USA, Inc. BZH shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $16.75. Beazer Homes updated its Q4 guidance in light of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. JP Morgan upgraded Beazer Homes from Neutral to Overweight and raised the price target from $14.50 to $21.00.

Equities Trading DOWN

Summit Therapeutics PLC (ADR) SMMT shares dropped 21 percent to $12.12. Summit Therapeutics priced public offering of 1.459 million American Depositary Shares at $12.00 per ADS.

Shares of Workhorse Group Inc WKHS were down 20 percent to $2.80. Workhorse priced its 3.75 million share common stock and warrant offering at $3.20 per share.

Glaukos Corp GKOS was down, falling around 20 percent to $33.16 after the company lowered its FY2017 sales guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.24 percent to $49.91 while gold traded up 0.12 percent to $1,329.60.

Silver traded down 0.49 percent Thursday to $17.78, while copper fell 0.82 percent to $2.9565.

Eurozone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.12 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.10 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.22 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.10 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.15 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.14 percent.

Economics

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.40 percent for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent growth.

Initial jobless claims declined to 284,000 in the latest week, versus a prior reading of 298,000. Economists projected jobless claims to reach 300,000 last week.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 91 billion cubic feet for the week ended September 8, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts were expecting a gain of 85 billion cubic feet.

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