Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; American Eagle Posts In-Line Profit

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.22 percent to 24,856.61 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.25 percent to 7,415.09. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.14 percent to 2,730.52.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained 1 percent.

In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares fell 0.51 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Century Aluminum Co CENX, down 8 percent, and DRDGOLD Ltd. (ADR) DRD down 5 percent.


Top Headline

American Eagle Outfitters AEO reported in-line earnings for its fourth quarter.

American Eagle reported adjusted earnings of $0.44 per share on sales of $1.23 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.44 per share on sales of $1.21 billion. Its comparable sales gained 8 percent in the quarter.

American Eagle expects Q1 earnings of $0.20 to $0.22 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.19 per share. The company raised its quarterly dividend from $0.125 to $0.1375 per share.


Equities Trading UP

Immuron Limited IMRN shares shot up 72 percent to $14.85 after the company disclosed positive results in NASH clinical trial.

Shares of PCM Inc PCMI got a boost, shooting up 43 percent to $11.60 following Q4 results.

Comtech Telecomm. Corp. CMTL shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $28.14 after reporting upbeat quarterly results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Vascular Biogenics Ltd VBLT shares dropped 58 percent to $2.83 after the company disclosed that its Phase 3 GLOBE study did not meet its pre-specified primary endpoint of overall survival.

Shares of FTD Companies Inc FTD were down 32 percent to $4.59 after the company reported preliminary financial results for the full-year ended December 31, 2017 and updated its 2018 business forecast.

BioScrip Inc BIOS was down, falling around 18 percent to $2.52 following Q4 results.


Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.02 percent to $61.16 while gold traded down 0.16 percent to $1,325.50.

Silver traded up 0.07 percent Thursday to $16.505, while copper fell 1.39 percent to $3.0925.


Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.30 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.30 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.61 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.21 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.61 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.20 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims increased 21,000 to 231,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 220,000 last week.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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

Posted In: NewsEurozoneCommoditiesGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMid-Morning Market Update
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