Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Yelp Jumps Following Strong Q2 Earnings; e.l.f. Beauty Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.04 percent to 25,573.45 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.43 percent to 7,921.89. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.10 percent to 2,860.44.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the telecommunication services shares climbed 0.90 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Windstream Holdings, Inc. WIN up 31 percent, and Cincinnati Bell Inc. CBB up 22 percent.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.83 percent.

Top Headline

Viacom, Inc. VIA reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Earnings came in at $1.18 per share, beating market estimates of $1.07 per share. Sales came in at $3.24 billion, beating estimates of $3.26 billion. Its worldwide affiliate revenue declined 3 percent to $1.15 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Belmond Ltd. BEL shares shot up 38 percent to $15.375 after the company released mixed earnings report. The company also reported review of strategic alternatives.

Shares of Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CTXR got a boost, shooting up 47 percent to $1.68 after the company priced $10 million, 7.84 million share offering at the market, for an effective price of $1.275.

Yelp Inc. YELP shares were also up, gaining 29 percent to $49.22 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and lifted its guidance for the full year.

Equities Trading DOWN

iPass Inc. IPAS shares dropped 31 percent to $0.270 after the company missed Q2 earnings estimates.

Shares of Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMPE were down 38 percent to $0.3768 after announcing a common stock offering.

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. ELF was down, falling around 29 percent to $10.58 after cutting its FY2018 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.16 percent to $66.83 while gold traded down 0.02 percent to $1,220.70.

Silver traded up 0.25 percent Thursday to $15.47, while copper rose 0.53 to $2.7655.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.09 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.08 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.72 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.34 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.01 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.45 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims declined 6,000 to 213,000 for the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 220,000 reading.

The Producer Price Index came in flat for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent rise.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.1 percent for June.

Domestic supplies of natural-gas stockpiles increased 46 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 3, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

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