Mid-Day Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Positive; Macy's Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.23 percent to 23,933.83 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.08 percent to 6,962.91. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.11 percent to 2,587.88.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the utilities shares climbed 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included PG&E Corporation PCG up 7 percent, and Korea Electric Power Corporation KEP up 4 percent.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell 1.3 percent.

Top Headline

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc BBBY reported upbeat profit for its third quarter and issued strong earnings forecast for 2019.

Bed Bath & Beyond posted quarterly earnings of $0.18 per share on sales of $3.03 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.17 per share on sales of $3.04 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Inpixon INPX shares got a boost, shooting up 35 percent to $4.42 after the company disclosed that its Indoor Positioning Analytics Sensor 4000SE has been selected to be used related to 'Smart School' safety network solution.

Shares of Diana Containerships Inc. DCIX shot up 33 percent to $1.06 after reporting a $6 million common share buyback program.

Precipio, Inc. PRPO shares were also up, gaining 51 percent to $0.2438 after the company received a United States Department of Defense order for its ICE COLD-PCR technology in mutation testing.

Equities Trading DOWN

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. ELF shares dropped 16 percent to $8.26 after analysts at Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to 'Underperform', citing concerns that fundamentals are 'deteriorating further.'

Shares of Macy's, Inc. M were down 18 percent to $25.99. Macy's reported 0.7-percent comps for the November-December period, marking the second consecutive year of positive performance for the holiday period. Macy's lowered its FY18 comp guidance for owned and licensed stores, and also adjusted EPS guidance from a range of $4.10-$4.30 to $3.95-$4, while analysts on average estimate EPS of $4.23.

Cancer Genetics, Inc. CGIX was down, falling around 26 percent to $0.2600 after the company priced a 13.33 million share offering at $0.225 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.04 percent to $52.38 while gold traded down 0.2 percent to $1,289.50.

Silver traded down 0.32 percent Thursday to $15.685, while copper fell 0.45 percent to $2.645.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.29 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.28 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.41 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.24 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.22 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.52 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 17,000 to 216,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 227,000 reading.

Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 91 billion cubic feet for the week ended January 4, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a fall of 84 billion cubic feet.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard will speak in Little Rock, AR at 12:40 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak in Washington, DC at 12:40 p.m. ET.

Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans will speak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak in Minneapolis, MN at 1:20 p.m. ET.

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

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will speak in New York at 7:00 p.m. ET.