Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Turns Red; AIM ImmunoTech Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.07% to 27130.84 while the NASDAQ rose 0.17% to 8,191.55. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.13% to 3,010.73.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included T2 Biosystems, Inc. TTOO, up 16%, and Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. LCTX, up 11%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed views.

Darden Restaurants reported first-quarter earnings of $1.38 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.36. The company reported quarterly sales of $2.134 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $2.14 billion. The company also announced a $500 million buyback.


Equities Trading UP

Westwater Resources, Inc. WWR shares shot up 19% to $3.6892 after the company announced agreement to purchase natural flake graphite for Coosa Project.

Shares of Eros International Plc EROS got a boost, shooting up 45% to $3.6876 after the company announced it would collaborate with Microsoft to develop the next generation online video platform.

AIM ImmunoTech Inc AIM shares were also up, gaining 44% to $2.3883 after the company announced the Department of Defense granted a four-year, $6.42 million "Breakthrough Award" to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center for its clinical study of the drug Ampligen, in patients with brain-metastatic breast cancer.

Equities Trading DOWN

McDermott International, Inc. MDR shares tumbled 23% to $1.6650 on continued momentum after the company announced it has hired advisors to 'evaluate opportunities' for the company in order to improve capital structure and the balance sheet.

Shares of Provention Bio, Inc. PRVB were down 15% to $8.23 after the company priced its common stock offering of 5 million shares at $8 per share.

VBI Vaccines Inc VBIV was down, falling 24% to $0.5149 after the company reported a common stock offering.
 

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $58.21, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,507.30.

Silver traded down 0.1% Thursday to $17.895, while copper fell 0.1% to $2.612.

Euro zone


European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.61%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.15%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.82%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.55%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.68% while UK shares rose 0.58%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose 2,000 to 208,000 for the latest week. However, economists were expecting a reading of 213,000.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index fell to 12 in September, versus prior reading of 16.8. However, analysts projected a reading of 11.

U.S. current-account deficit shrank 5.9% to $128.2 billion in the second quarter, versus a revised $136.2 billion in the first quarter.

U.S. existing home sales rose 1.3% to an annual rate of 5.49 million for August. However, analysts were expecting a 5.37 million rate.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 84 billion cubic feet for the week ended September 13, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a gain of 76 billion cubic feet.

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