Mid-Morning Market Update: Precious Metals Trade Down; Apple Shares Rise On Strong Holiday Sales

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.56% to 28,745.09, while the NASDAQ rose 0.67% to 9,129.24. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.49% to 3,253.05.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Information Technology shares climbed 1.03% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included DBV Technologies DBVT, up 20.11%, and Axonics Modulation Technologies Inc AXNX, up 18.41%.

In trading on Thursday, Energy shares fell 1.74%.

Top Headline
Apple Inc. AAPL reported strong holiday sales.

Apple said its App Store customers had spent $1.42 billion between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, representing 16% growth versus the same period last year. Apple customers spent $386 million on New Year’s Day alone, setting a new single-day record.

Equities Trading UP

• DBV Technologies S.A. DBVT shares rose 21.7% to $13.68 in pre-market trading after the company reported positive three-year, long-term data from the PEOPLE Phase III Open-label extension study of viaskin peanut in children with peanut allergy.


• Nabriva Therapeutics PLC NBRV rose 11.4% to $1.37 in pre-market trading after the company received FDA acknowledgment of NDA resubmission for intravenous CONTEPO for injection.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. TUFN fell 29.7% to $12.10 in pre-market trading after the company announced Q4 sales of $29.5 million-$30.1 million compared to the previous range of $34 million-$38 million.


• Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY fell 8.4% to $15.26 in pre-market trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for its third quarter. The company expects sales and profitability to remain pressured and withdrew its 2019 fiscal year guidance.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.22% to $59.48, while gold traded down 0.56% to $1,551.50.

Silver traded down 1.41% Thursday to $17.91, while copper fell 0.23% to $2.80.

Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.40%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.08%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.98%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.26%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.32% while UK shares climbed 0.48%

Economics
The EIA report on natural gas inventories is scheduled to be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.