Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; Walgreens Earnings Top Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.08% to 26516.30 while the NASDAQ rose 0.63% to 7,960.10. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.39% to 2,925.00.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included OFG Bancorp OFG, up 17%, and First BanCorp FBP, up 8%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA posted upbeat earnings for its third quarter.

Walgreens Boots Alliance reported third-quarter earnings of $1.47 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.43. The company reported quarterly sales of $34.591 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $34.47 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Dova Pharmaceuticals, Inc. DOVA shares shot up 20% to $12.74 after the company reported FDA approval of its supplemental New Drug Application for DOPTELET, expanding the use to include treatment of thrombocytopenia in adults with ITP.

Shares of Zogenix, Inc.. ZGNX got a boost, shooting up 23% to $48.56 after the company reported an FDA deal to proceed with the resubmission of its FINTEPLA new drug application.

OFG Bancorp OFG shares were also up, gaining 16% to $24.03 after the company announced the purchase of Scotiabank operations in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands for $550 million in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

XpresSpa Group, Inc. XSPA shares tumbled 54% to $2.16 after a third amendment to outstanding secured convertible notes due November 17, 2019, resulting in added 941,000 shares to outstanding common stock count.

Shares of Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. ACRS were down 40% to $2.65 after the company reported Phase 2 Trial results for ATI-502 did not meet its primary or secondary endpoints.

Motus GI Holdings, Inc. MOTS was down, falling 13% to $3.10 after the company reported the pricing of a common stock offering for 6.66 million shares at $3 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $58.95, while gold traded down 0.8% to $1,403.90.

Silver traded down 0.7% Thursday to $15.185, while copper fell 0.4% to $2.704.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.3%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.2%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.2% while UK shares fell 0.2%.

Economics

Gross Domestic Product was unchanged at 3.1% for the first quarter. Economists were projecting a growth of 3.1%.

Initial jobless claims rose 10,000 to 227,000 last week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 220,000.

The pending home sales index rose 1.1% for May, versus economists’ expectations for a 1.1% increase.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for June is schedule for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on farm prices for May 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.