Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps Over 350 Points; Barnes & Noble Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.51 percent to 24,302.10 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.83 percent to 6,881.31. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.07 percent to 2,654.13.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the industrial sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Titan Machinery Inc. TITN and Celadon Group, Inc. CGI.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares rose by just 0.2 percent.

Top Headline

Kroger Co TIF posted better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Kroger posted quarterly earnings of $0.44 per share on revenue of $27.75 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.40 per share on revenue of $27.46 billion. Its comparable store sales rose 1.1 percent during the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Titan Machinery Inc. TITN shares shot up 15 percent to $19.25 after the company reported Q3 results.

Shares of Tilly's Inc TLYS got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $15.734 after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its third quarter on Wednesday.

Immersion Corporation IMMR shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $7.29. Immersion disclosed that Vic Viegas has agreed to resign as CEO and as a director. The company named Carl Schlachte as Interim CEO.

Equities Trading DOWN

Myomo Inc MYO shares dropped 24 percent to $2.20 as the company reported the pricing of its public offering.

Shares of Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS were down 12 percent to $6.85 after the company posted a wider-than-expected Q2 loss.

SMART Global Holdings, Inc. SGH was down, falling around 13 percent to $30.11. SMART Global Holdings priced an underwritten public offering of 3,261,102 of its ordinary shares at $33.50 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.33 percent to $57.11 while gold traded down 0.89 percent to $1,274.70.

Silver traded down 1 percent Thursday to $16.395, while copper rose 0.15 percent to $3.073.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.33 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.55 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.19 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.29 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.47 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.90 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims declined 2,000 to 238,000 in the latest week. However, economists projected claims to total 240,000 last week.

U.S. consumer spending rose 0.3 percent for October, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent growth. Personal income gained 0.4 percent, versus estimates for a 0.3 percent gain.

The Chicago PMI declined to 63.90 for November, versus prior reading of 66.20. Economists expected a reading of 63.00.

Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 33 billion cubic feet for the week ended November 24, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a decline of 37 billion cubic feet.

Data on farm prices for October will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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