Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Cimpress Drops After Q2 Results; Fortress Biotech Shares Jump

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.21 percent to 24,962.32 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.32 percent to 7,277.93. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.73 percent to 2,700.69.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the communication services shares climbed 3.8 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Charter Communications Inc CHTR up 15 percent, and GCI Liberty, Inc. GLIBA up 13 percent.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 1.3 percent.

Top Headline

Facebook, Inc. FB reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Wednesday.

Earnings came in at $2.38 per share, beating estimates by 19 cents. Sales came in at $16.64 billion, beating estimates by $230 million.

The company estimates that around 2.7 billion people now use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsAppor Messenger each month, and more than 2 billion people use at least one of the four services every day on average. Monthly Active Users were 2.32 billion, a 9 percent increase year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

Fortress Biotech FBIO shares got a boost, shooting up 35 percent to $2.00 after the company highlighted a collaboration between Caelum Biosciences, founded by Fortress, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals to develop a light chain amyloidosis therapy.

Shares of MeiraGTx Holdings plc MGTX shot up 30 percent to $12.43 after the company reported a global collaboration and license deal with J&J's Janssen to develop gene therapy programs for inherited retinal diseases.

Eldorado Gold Corporation EGO shares were also up, gaining 26 percent to $3.71 after the company announced decision to resume mining and heap leaching at its Kisladag gold mine. The company also issued three year consolidated production outlook.

Equities Trading DOWN

Co-Diagnostics, Inc. CODX shares dropped 40 percent to $1.34 after jumping 101.80 percent on Wednesday. Co-Diagnostics reported a $5.5 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Cimpress N.V. CMPR were down 27 percent to $85.14 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results.

Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. UEPS was down, falling around 34 percent to $3.07 after the company issued an update on EPE accounts court process. The company said it expects a loss for the second quarter.
.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.33 percent to $54.41 while gold traded up 0.85 percent to $1,326.70.

Silver traded up 0.93 percent Thursday to $16.075, while copper rose 0.61 percent to $2.7845.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.04 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.16 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.21 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.08 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.36 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.39 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose 53,000 to 253,000 in the latest week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 215,000.

The employment cost index increased 0.7 percent for the fourth quarter.

The Chicago PMI fell to 56.70 for January, versus prior reading of 65.40. However, economists projected a reading of 61.50.

U.S. new home sales rose 16.9 at an annual rate of 657,000 for November. However, economists were expecting a 560,000 rate.

Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 173 billion cubic feet for the week ended January 25, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a fall of 189 billion cubic feet.

Data on farm prices for December will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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