Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Up 1.5%; Align Technology Shares Drop After Downbeat Forecast

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.5 percent to 24,952.50 while the NASDAQ climbed 2.6 percent to 7,293.39. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.77 percent to 2,703.16.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the information technology shares gained 2.6 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Xilinx, Inc. XLNX up 13 percent, and Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. MLNX up 10 percent.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares tumbled 1.5 percent.

Top Headline

Twitter Inc TWTR reported upbeat results for its third quarter.

Twitter said it earned $0.21 per share in the quarter on revenue of $758 million, which was better than the $0.14 per share and $702.57 million analysts were expecting. Twitter disclosed that average daily active users rose 9 percent year-over-year in the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Sleep Number Corporation SNBR shares shot up 17 percent to $35.75 after the company reported strong Q3 results.

Shares of Twitter, Inc. TWTR got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $32.12 after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Xilinx, Inc. XLNX shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $77.96 after the company posted upbeat Q2 results and raised its FY19 sales guidance.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

CURO Group Holdings Corp. CURO shares dropped 30 percent to $16.08 after the company reported weak Q3 earnings and lowered its FY18 EPS guidance.

Shares of Align Technology, Inc. ALGN were down 23 percent to $223.00. Align Technology posted upbeat Q3 results, but issued weak forecast for the current quarter.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD was down, falling around 16 percent to $19.1818. AMD reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company issued weak fourth-quarter sales guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.25 percent to $66.99 while gold traded up 0.02 percent to $1,231.40.

Silver traded down 0.42 percent Thursday to $14.615, while copper fell 0.2 to $2.752.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.45 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.13 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.6 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.98 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.54 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.28 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders rose 0.8 percent for September, versus economists’ expectations for a 1.3 percent decline.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods increased to $76.0 billion in September. However, economists were expecting a $76.2 billion deficit. Exports gained 1.8 percent, while imports increased 1.5 percent for September.

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 5,000 to 215,000 in the latest week. However, economists expected a 214,000 reading.

U.S. pending home sales rose 0.5 percent to 104.6 for September, versus a reading of 104.1 in August.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 58 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 19, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a rise of 47 billion cubic feet.

The Treasury is set to auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Board of Governors Vice Chairman Richard Clarida is set to speak in Washington, D.C. at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester will speak in New York, NY at 7:00 p.m. ET.

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