Mid-Day Market Update: PriceSmart Drops On Downbeat Earnings, Alnylam Gains

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.90 percent to 15,429.11 while the NASDAQ surged 1.19 percent to 3,562.48. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.02 percent to 1,669.42.

Top Headline

Yesterday, Yum! Brands YUM reported upbeat second-quarter earnings.

Yum’s quarterly profit fell to $281 million, or $0.61 per share, from $331 million, or $0.69 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, its adjusted earnings dropped to $0.56 from $0.67 per share.

Its revenue fell 8% to $2.9 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.54 per share on revenue of $2.93 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Bridgepoint Education BPI shot up 19.90 percent to $15.12 after the company reported that its Ashford University received accreditation by WASC.

Shares of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals ALNY got a boost, shooting up 14.77 percent to $43.15 after the company reported positive top-line results for ALN-TTRsc.

Advanced Micro Devices AMD was also up, gaining 9.25 percent to $4.35 after analysts at Bank of America upgraded the stock from “underperform” to “buy.”

Equities Trading DOWN

Shares of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals MACK were down 19 percent to $5.66 after the company announced proposed concurrent public offerings of common stock and convertible senior notes.

PriceSmart PSMT was down, falling 4.16 percent to $87.82 after the company reported weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings.

Marketo MKTO shares tumbled 10.22 percent to $22.40 after UBS downgraded the stock from “neutral” to “sell.”

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.37 percent to $105.06, while gold traded up 2.70 percent to $1,281.10.

Silver traded up 4.15 percent Thursday to $19.96, while copper rose 2.62 percent to $3.17.

Eurozone

European shares were higher following the dovish comments from Bernanke. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.40 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index gained 0.01 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX jumped 1.04 percent and the French CAC 40 rose 0.74 percent while U.K. shares surged 0.54 percent.

Economics

US jobless claims surged 16,000 to 360,000 in the first week of July. However, economists were projecting claims to increase to 349,000 in the week, versus a revised 344,000 in the earlier week.

US import prices declined 0.2% in June, while the price of exports fell 0.1% in the month.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to minus 27.3 in the week ended July 7.

US natural-gas inventories rose by 82 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 5, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a rise between 80 billion cubic feet and 84 billion cubic feet.

The Treasury is set to auction 30-year bonds and give its budget statement.

Data on money supply will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

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Posted In: EarningsNewsTechnicalsEconomicsIntraday UpdateMarketsMoversTrading IdeasMid-Day Market Update
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