Mid-Day Market Update: Xilinx Climbs Following Upbeat Q3 Results; Briggs & Stratton Shares Tumble

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.11 percent to 24,549.64 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.55 percent to 7,064.20. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.08 percent to 2,640.82.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the energy shares climbed 1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Bristow Group Inc. BRS up 12 percent, and Lilis Energy, Inc. LLEX up 6 percent.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 1.5 percent.

Top Headline

Southwest Airlines Co LUV reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Southwest posted quarterly earnings of $1.17 per share on revenue of $5.704 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.07 per share on revenue of $5.67 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Lam Research Corporation LRCX shares got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $160.67 after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and announced a $5 billion buyback plan.

Shares of Triumph Group, Inc. TGI shot up 28 percent to $17.00 after the company entered an agreement to sell its Global 7500 wing manufacturing unit to Bombardier.

Xilinx, Inc. XLNX shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $106.14 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter and issued strong fourth-quarter sales guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Briggs & Stratton Corporation BGG shares dropped 16 percent to $11.55 after the company missed Q2 EPS estimates. The company also cut FY19 EPS and sales guidance.

Shares of McCormick & Company, Incorporated MKC were down 13 percent to $121.08 after the company reported downbeat results for its fourth quarter and issued weak FY19 earnings forecast.

NuCana plc NCNA was down, falling around 18 percent to $11.61 after announcing a $75 million ADS offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.12 percent to $53.21 while gold traded down 0.23 percent to $1,287.20.

Silver traded down 0.29 percent Thursday to $15.335, while copper fell 0.43 percent to $2.643.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.22 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 0.23 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.85 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.53 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.65 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.35 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims declined 13,000 to 199,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 219,000 reading.

The Markit manufacturing PMI increased to 54.9 in December, versus prior reading of 53.8. The services index dropped to 54.2 versus 54.4.

The index of leading economic indicators declined 0.1 percent for December.

U.S. natural gas supplies fell 163 billion cubic feet for the latest week. However, analysts estimated a drop of 145 billion cubic feet.

Domestic crude supplies rose 7.97 million barrels for the week ended January 18, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a decline of 435,000 barrels. Gasoline stockpiles gained 4.05 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles slipped 617,000 barrels last week.

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