Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up Over 2%; Boingo Wireless Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.01 percent to 25,332.52 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.14 percent to 7,794.97. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.46 percent to 2,826.31.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the information technology shares climbed 1.34 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Quarterhill Inc. QTRH up 27 percent, and Internap Corporation INAP up 23 percent.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 0.71 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 40 percent to $32.58 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 52 percent to $1.94 after the nano-cap REIT said it reached an agreement to sell its Yuma Hospitality Property for $16.25 million.

DexCom, Inc. DXCM shares were also up, gaining 29 percent to $122.84 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and raised its FY18 sales guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. CCRN shares dropped 30 percent to $8.25 after the company posted downbeat second-quarter results.

Shares of ION Geophysical Corporation IO were down 28 percent to $18.647 after the company announced weak quarterly financial results.

Synthetic Biologics, Inc. SYN was down, falling around 34 percent to $0.13 after the company announced a 1:35 reverse stock split.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.22 percent to $69.16 while gold traded down 0.59 percent to $1,220.30.

Silver traded down 0.43 percent Thursday to $15.385, while copper fell 0.18 to $2.7425.
2.1

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.82 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.03 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.73 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.50 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.68 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.01 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 on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.