Mid-Afternoon Market Update: NASDAQ Up 2%; Movado Shares Surge On Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.5 percent to 24,205.62 while the NASDAQ climbed 2 percent to 7,087.84. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.6 percent to 2,646.66.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the information technology shares gained 1.58 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Verint Systems Inc. VRNT, up 14 percent, and NeoPhotonics Corporation NPTN, up 13 percent.

In trading on Thursday, telecommunication services shares fell 0.06 percent.

Top Headline

Constellation Brands, Inc. STZ reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Constellation Brands reported adjusted earnings of $1.90 per share on revenue of $1.77 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.74 per share on sales of $1.75 billion.

Constellation Brands now expects FY19 adjusted earnings of $9.40-$9.70 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $9.58 per share. The company raised its Class A dividend to $0.74 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Movado Group, Inc. MOV shares shot up 16 percent to $38.58 after the company posted upbeat Q4 results and issued a strong FY19 forecast.

Shares of Unit Corporation UNT got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $19.40 after the company agreed to sell 50 percent interest in midstream subsidiary.

Galectin Therapeutics, Inc. GALT shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $4.57. Galectin Therapeutics posted a FY17 loss of $0.49 per share and disclosed that it continues to remain in ongoing discussions with a number of pharma companies about potential partnerships.

Equities Trading DOWN

Zosano Pharma Corporation ZSAN shares dropped 44 percent to $5.115. Zosano Pharma confirmed pricing of 10 million share offering at $5 per share.

Shares of Remark Holdings, Inc. MARK were down 14 percent to $6.12. Remark Holdings reported a Q4 loss of $89.2 million on sales of $18.6 million.

MediciNova, Inc. MNOV was down, falling around 20 percent to $9.585 after the company disclosed that its Phase 2 clinical trial of MN-166 did not meet primary endpoint.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.61 percent to $64.77 while gold traded down 0.29 percent to $1,326.20.

Silver traded up 0.01 percent Thursday to $16.255, while copper rose 0.57 percent to $3.019.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.44 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.48 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.36 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 1.31 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.72 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.17 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims slipped 12,000 to 215,000 in the latest week. Economists were expecting claims to reach 230,000 last week.

U.S. consumer spending rose 0.2 percent for February, while income increased 0.4 percent.

The Chicago PMI declined to a reading of 57.4 in March, versus 61.9 in February.

The final reading of University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index slipped to 101.4 in March from 102.

Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 63 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 23, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a fall of 70 billion cubic feet.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs declined by 7 to 797 this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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