Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Best Buy Tops Q1 Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.31 percent to 21,076.98 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.37 percent to 6,185.66. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.31 percent to 2,411.88.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Cyclical consumer goods & services sector was the top gainer in the US market on Thursday. Top gainers in the sector included Sears Holdings Corp SHLD, Modine Manufacturing Co. MOD, and Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) GSOL.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 0.02 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Atlantic Power Corp AT, down 1 percent, and Ameren Corp AEE, down 1 percent.

Top Headline

Best Buy Co Inc BBY reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

The big-box retailer said it earned $0.60 per share in the quarter on revenue of $8.528 billion. By comparison, the company earned $0.43 per share in the same quarter a year ago on revenue of $8.443 billion. Operating income fell from $372 million a year ago to $300 million. Analysts expected earnings of $0.40 per share on revenue of $8.27 billion.

Enterprise comparable sales rose 1.6 percent in the quarter while domestic comparable sales rose 1.4 percent.

Equities Trading UP

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. BCRX shares shot up 41 percent to $7.22 after the company reported additional results from a second interim analysis of its Phase 2 APeX-1 clinical trial. BioCryst disclosed that 125 mg dose Of BCX7353 showed a 73 percent reduction of overall attack rate in HAE patients.

Shares of Sears Holdings Corp SHLD got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $8.95 after the company posted a narrower-than-expected Q1 loss.

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc AERI shares were also up, gaining 36 percent to $55.20 as the company reported positive Roclatan Phase 3 efficacy results on Wednesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Genesco Inc. GCO shares dropped 18 percent to $36.70 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results.

Shares of International Game Technology IGT were down 16 percent to $17.63 after the company reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Costamare Inc CMRE was down, falling around 10 percent to $7.01. Costamare prices offering of 13,500,000 shares of its common stock at $7.10 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.27 percent to $50.71 while gold traded up 0.16 percent to $1,258.50.

Silver traded up 0.46 percent Thursday to $17.19, while copper rose 0.02 percent to $2.584.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.01 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.36 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.40 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.10 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.08 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.08 percent.

Economics

The trade deficit for goods climbed to $67.6 billion in April, versus $65.1 billion in March. However, economists were projecting a deficit of $64 billion for April. Wholesale inventories declined 0.3 percent in April, while retail inventories slipped 0.3 percent.

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 1,000 to 234,000 for the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 238,000 in the week.

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

The Treasury is set to auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Kansas City's Fed manufacturing index for May is schedule for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard will speak in Tokyo at 10:00 p.m. ET.