Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 3%; AVG Shares Surge Following Acquisition News

 


Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.07 percent to 17,906.57 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.29 percent to 4,873.08. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.02 percent to 2,100.23.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained by 0.35 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Wolverine World Wide, Inc. WWW and Zumiez Inc. ZUMZ.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell by 1.31 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included California Water Service Group CWT, down 3 percent, and Atlantic Power Corp AT, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

PepsiCo, Inc. PEP reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings.

PepsiCo reported net income of $2.01 billion, up 1 percent from $1.98 billion while earnings advanced four percent to $1.38 a share from $1.33 a share in the year-ago quarter. Its core earnings also grew 2 percent to $1.35 a share. The company indicated that on a constant currency basis, its core earnings would have advanced 6 percent. Street analysts expected the company to report earnings of $1.30 a share.

Moving ahead, PepsiCo expects core earnings to be $4.71 a share for the full year, which is $0.02 a share lower than the Street analysts' expectations of $4.73 a share.

Equities Trading UP

SemiLEDs Corporation LEDS shares shot up 162 percent to $8.65 after filing of large insider buy released. Dr. Peter Chiou will purchase 577,000 shares of SemiLEDs common stock at $5.00 per share.

Shares of AVG Technologies NV AVG got a boost, shooting up 32 percent to $24.71 after Avast Software announced plans to acquire AVG Technologies for $1.3 billion in cash.

WhiteWave Foods Co WWAV shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $56.30 after France's Danone SA announced its plans to buy WhiteWave Foods for $56.25 per share in cash.


Equities Trading DOWN

Great Panther Silver Ltd GPL shares dropped 18 percent to $1.52 after the company reported a deal to sell 12.5 million shares at $1.60 per share.

Shares of First Solar, Inc. FSLR were down 9 percent to $44.68. Deutsche Bank downgraded First Solar from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $80.00 to $44.00.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc ARE was down, falling around 4 percent to $101.40 as the company reported a proposed offering of common stock of 5.7 million shares.


Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.3 percent to $45.87 while gold traded down 0.70 percent to $1,357.50.

Silver traded down 2.64 percent Thursday to $19.67, while copper fell 1.51 percent to $2.12.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.05 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 1.03 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.08 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.49 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.80 percent, while U.K. shares rose 1.09 percent.

Economics

Private sector employers added 172,000 jobs in June, ADP reported. However, economists were projecting a gain of 150,000 jobs.

Job cuts increased to 38,536 in June, versus a prior reading of 30,157 cuts, according to a report issued by Challenger Gray & Christmas.

Initial jobless claims dropped 16,000 to 254,000 last week. However, economists were expecting new claims to total 265,000 in the week.

Natural-gas supplies increased 39 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 1, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a gain of 42 billion cubic feet.

U.S. crude supplies slipped 2.2 million barrels for the week ended July 1, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a drop of 2.6 million barrels. Gasoline supplies declined 100,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles dropped 1.6 million barrels last week.

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

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Posted In: EarningsNewsGuidanceEurozoneCommoditiesM&AGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMoversMid-Day Market Updat
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