Mid-Day Market Update: J C Penney Drops Following Downbeat Earnings; Lifevantage Shares Gain

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.37 percent to 25,505.89 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.70 percent to 7,828.76. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.83 percent to 2,841.79.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the telecommunication services shares rose 1.36 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pareteum Corporation TEUM up 4 percent, and Windstream Holdings, Inc. WIN up 4 percent.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares rose by just 0.2 percent.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc WMT reported upbeat Q2 results and raised its FY19 earnings forecast.

Earnings came in at $1.29 per share, beating estimates of $1.22 per share. Sales came in at $128 billion, beating estimates of $126.04 billion. Walmart's U.S. segment saw comps rise 4.5 percent, the strongest growth in more than 10 years and is attributed to strong performance in grocery, apparel and seasonal. Sam's Club comp sales rose 5 percent, which marks the strongest growth in six years.

Equities Trading UP

58.com Inc. WUBA shares shot up 11 percent to $65.31 after the company beat Q2 earnings estimates.

Shares of Summit Therapeutics plc SMMT got a boost, shooting up 9 percent to $2.22 after the company disclosed that it has been awarded an additional $12 million by the BARDA for Phase 3 development program of ridinilazole for the treatment of C. difficile infection.

Lifevantage Corporation LFVN shares were also up, gaining 12 percent to $10.59 after reporting a big jump in earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. JCP shares dropped 23 percent to $1.865 after the company missed Q2 earnings estimates and issued weak 2018 EPS guidance.

Shares of SpartanNash Company SPTN were down 17 percent to $19.695 following mixed Q2 earnings and weak 2018 EPS guidance.

Pain Therapeutics, Inc. PTIE was down, falling around 49 percent to $1.00 after the company announced a $11.3 million direct offering with several institutional investors.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.05 percent to $65.04 while gold traded up 0.19 percent to $1,187.20.

Silver traded up 2.15 percent Thursday to $14.765, while copper rose 2.73 to $2.63.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.44 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.59 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.55 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.42 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.76 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.84 percent.

Economics

Housing starts rose 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 1.17 million in July, versus a revised 1.16 million rate in June. However, economists projected starts to reach 1.27 million.

Initial jobless claims dropped 2,000 to 212,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 215,000 reading.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index dropped to 11.9 for August, compared to 25.7 in July. Economists projected a reading of 21.9.

Domestic supplies of natural gas increased 33 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 10, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a gain of 30 billion cubic feet.

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