Mid-Afternoon Market Update: J.Jill Climbs On Earnings Beat; Scpharmaceuticals Shares Fall

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.91 percent to 24,442.32 while the NASDAQ declined 0.01 percent to 7,462.07. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.48 percent to 2,711.03.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the information technology shares surged 0.47 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Keysight Technologies, Inc. KEYS, up 12 percent, and QAD Inc. QADB up 11 percent.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 1.76 percent.

Top Headline

Dollar General Corporation DG reported weaker-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Dollar General posted adjusted earnings of $1.36 per share on revenue of $6.114 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.40 per share on revenue of $6.2 billion. Its same-store growth rose 2.1 percent in the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MDGL shares shot up 144 percent to $264.885 in reaction to an encouraging Phase 2 clinical trial update. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company said its liver-directed, thyroid hormone receptor called MGL-3196 showed a statistical significance in the primary endpoint of lowering liver fat at 12 weeks and also 36 weeks.

Shares of Akers Biosciences, Inc. AKER got a boost, shooting up 32 percent to $0.429. The developer of rapid health information technologies said Wednesday afternoon it was granted a 180-day extension from the Nasdaq Stock Market to meet the requirement of a minimum $1.00 per share closing bid price for 10 straight days.

J.Jill, Inc. JILL shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $7.67 after the company posted upbeat quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

scPharmaceuticals Inc. SCPH shares dropped 30 percent to $10.00 after the FDA identified deficiencies in the company’s New Drug Application for FUROSCIX. However, the FDA letter did not specify deficiencies identified and notification does not reflect final decision on information under review.

Shares of Golar LNG Limited GLNG were down 24 percent to $26.47 following Q1 results.

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. CLSD was down, falling around 26 percent to $10.775. Clearside Biomedical disclosed that its Phase 2 trial of CLS-TA met primary and secondary endpoints met in 6-month trial.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.58 percent to $67.13 while gold traded down 0.03 percent to $1,306.10.

Silver traded down 0.21 percent Thursday to $16.51, while copper fell 0.11 to $3.0655.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.63 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.05 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.06 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 1.40 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.53 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.15 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 13,000 to 221,000 in the latest week. However, economists were projecting a 225,000 reading.

Consumer spending rose 0.6 percent in April, versus a revised 0.5 percent increase in March. Economists were expecting a 0.4 percent rise.

The Chicago PMI rose 5.1 points to a reading of 62.7 in May..

U.S. pending home sales declined 1.3 percent to 106.4 for April.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 96 billion cubic feet for the week ended May 25, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a gain of 102 billion cubic feet.

Crude supplies dropped 3.62 million barrels for the week ended May 25, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Gasoline stockpiles rose 534,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles gained 634,000 barrels for the week.

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

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan is set to speak at 8:30 p.m. ET.