Mid-Day Market Update: Cross Country Healthcare Drops After Downbeat Q2 Results; InnSuites Hospitality Trust Shares Climb

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.43 percent to 25,223.91 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.38 percent to 7,736.41. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.02 percent to 2,812.79.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the consumer staples shares climbed 0.43 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. HLF up 10 percent, and Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. SFM up 10 percent.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 1.26 percent.

Top Headline

Aetna Inc. AET reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Earnings came in at $3.43 per share, beating market estimates of $3.04 per share. Sales came in at $15.56 billion, beating estimates of $15.5 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Boingo Wireless, Inc. WIFI shares shot up 30 percent to $30.15 after reporting a second-quarter earnings beat. Boingo Wireless also announced the purchase of Elauwit Networks for $28 million in cash.

Shares of InnSuites Hospitality Trust IHT got a boost, shooting up 64 percent to $2.10 after the nano-cap REIT said it reached an agreement to sell its Yuma Hospitality Property for $16.25 million.

Quarterhill Inc. QTRH shares were also up, gaining 29 percent to $1.3878 after its patent licensing company subsidiary WiLan won a $145.1 million verdict against Apple Inc. AAPL in a patent infringement suit.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. CCRN shares dropped 28 percent to $8.56 after the company posted downbeat second-quarter results.

Shares of Epizyme, Inc. EPZM were down 32 percent to $8.9025 after the company announced mixed quarterly earnings. The company also announced it has terminated development of tazemetostat for large B-cell lymphoma due to lack of efficacy.

Synthetic Biologics, Inc. SYN was down, falling around 37 percent to $0.1248 after the company announced a 1:35 reverse stock split.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.05 percent to $68.37 while gold traded down 0.41 percent to $1,222.60.

Silver traded down 0.34 percent Thursday to $15.40, while copper fell 0.64 to $2.73.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.93 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.18 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.93 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.66 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.73 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.94 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose 1,000 to 218,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a reading of 220,000.

U.S. factory orders rose 0.7 percent for June, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.7 percent gain.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 35 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 27, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a gain of 45 billion cubic feet.

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