Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up Over 1.5%; Whiting Petroleum Shares Climb After Strong Q4 Results

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.29 percent to 25,117.55 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.73 percent to 7,270.94. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.01 percent to 2,728.60.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the energy shares climbed 1.81 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Whiting Petroleum Corp WLL, up 26 percent, and Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK, up 25 percent.

In trading on Thursday, technology shares rose by just 0.6 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included AXT Inc AXTI, down 12 percent, and VASCO Data Security International, Inc. VDSI down 12 percent.

Top Headline

PPL PPL reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

The company said it earned $0.55 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $1.92 billion versus expectations of $0.48 per share on revenue of $2.03 billion.

PPL expects FY18 earnings of $2.30 per share. PPL raised its annual dividend from $1.58 to $1.64 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Sangamo Therapeutics Inc SGMO shares shot up 19 percent to $26.45. Sangamo Therapeutics posted strong Q4 results. Gilead's Kite and Sangamo Therapeutics disclosed a collaboration to develop generation engineered cell therapies for cancer treatment.

Shares of Whiting Petroleum Corp WLL got a boost, shooting up 26 percent to $28.50 following upbeat Q4 results.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $3.24 after the company reported upbeat Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Macquarie Infrastructure Corp MIC shares dropped 38 percent to $39.60 following Q4 report. The company declared a $1.44 per share dividend but gave '18 dividend guidance suggesting its quarterly dividend would be cut to $1 per share.

Shares of Advaxis, Inc. ADXS were down 26 percent to $1.86. Advaxis priced its 10 million share offering at $2 per share.
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Applied Optoelectronics Inc AAOI was down, falling around 23 percent to $26.57 after reporting a fourth quarter sales miss. Adjusted earnings came in at 89 cents per share, beating estimates by 6 cents. Sales came in at $79.9 million, missing estimates by $6 million. The company issued weak first quarter earnings and sales guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.57 percent to $62.65 while gold traded down 0.01 percent to $ 1,332.00.

Silver traded down 0.05 percent Thursday to $16.67, while copper rose 0.31 percent to $3.247.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.20 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.54 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.84 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.07 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.13 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.40 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims dropped 7,000 to 222,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 230,000 last week.

The Conference Board's leading economic index rose 1 percent for January.

Crude stocks declined 1.62 million barrels in the latest week, the Energy Information Administration said. However, analysts expected a gain of 1.79 million barrels.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak at 3:30 p.m. ET.

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