Mid-Day Market Update: Ossen Innovation Rises After 1H Results; Stitch Fix Shares Slide

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.83 percent to 26,625.92 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.77 percent to 8,010.99. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.59 percent to 2,925.15.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the information technology shares rose 1.19 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. UEPS up 11 percent, and trivago N.V. TRVG up 9 percent.

In trading on Thursday, telecommunication services shares fell 0.15 percent.

Top Headline

Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter and raised its FY19 guidance.

Darden posted quarterly earnings of $1.34 per share on sales of $2.06 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.24 per share on sales of $2.03 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Ossen Innovation Co., Ltd. OSN shares shot up 47 percent to $2.90. Ossen Innovation posted 1H earnings of $0.24 per share on sales of $70 million.

Shares of Altimmune, Inc. ALT got a boost, shooting up 76 percent to $28.99 after surging 285.48 percent on Wednesday.

New Age Beverages Corporation NBEV shares were also up, gaining 56 percent to $6.80 after surging 54.96 percent on Wednesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Stitch Fix, Inc. SFIX shares dropped 14 percent to $40.56. Piper Jaffray downgraded Stitch Fix from Overweight to Neutral.

Shares of Roadrunner Transportation Systems, Inc. RRTS were down 15 percent to $0.9801 after reporting a $450 million rights offering.

Thor Industries, Inc. THO was down, falling around 14 percent to $90.64 after the company reported weaker-than-expected profit for its fourth quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.42 percent to $70.82 while gold traded up 0.30 percent to $1,211.90.

Silver traded up 0.42 percent Thursday to $14.34, while copper fell 0.24 to $2.723.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.63 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.96 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.58 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.84 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 1.04 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.37 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims declined 3,000 to 201,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 210,000 reading.

The Philly Fed manufacturing index climbed to 22.9 in September, compared to 11.9 in August. Economists projected a reading of 17.

Existing-home sales were flat in August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent increase.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 percent for August.

Domestic supplies of natural gas gained 86 billion cubic feet for the week ended September 14, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a gain of 84 billion cubic feet.

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