Mid-Day Market Update: Western Refining Surges On Acquisition News; Stage Stores Shares Slide

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.06 percent to 18,878.76 while the NASDAQ gained 0.60 percent to 5,326.15. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.41 percent to 2,185.86.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, telecommunications services shares gained by 0.77 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included IDT Corporation IDT, and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) CHU.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares rose by just 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included New Jersey Resources Corp NJR, down 5 percent, and Genie Energy Ltd GNE, down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT reported mixed results for its third quarter.

Wal-Mart said it earned $0.98 per share in the quarter on revenue of $117.2 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.96 per share on revenue of $118.7 billion.

Revenue for the quarter rose 0.7 percent from a year ago while U.S. comp sales rose 1.2 percent, driven by a traffic increase of 0.7 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Rand Logistics, Inc. RLOG shares shot up 47 percent to $1.60. Rand Logistics shares have dropped 52.05 percent over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 6.17 percent in the same period.

Shares of Global Ship Lease Inc GSL got a boost, shooting up 22 percent to $2.44 after gaining 28.21 percent on Wednesday.

Western Refining, Inc. WNR shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $37.33 as Tesoro Corporation TSO announced plans to buy Western Refining for $37.30 per share in a stock transaction.

Equities Trading DOWN

Stage Stores Inc SSI shares dropped 16 percent to $4.85 as the company reported a wider-than-expected Q3 loss and issued a weak earnings forecast for the current quarter.

Shares of Stein Mart, Inc. SMRT were down 19 percent to $5.51 after the company reported weak results for its third quarter.

Sanchez Production Partners LP SPP was down, falling around 17 percent to $10.95. Sanchez Production Partners priced its 6.55M share offering at $11 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.46 percent to $46.31 while gold traded up 0.07 percent to $1,224.80.

Silver traded down 0.16 percent Thursday to $16.90, while copper rose 0.79 percent to $2.50.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.63 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.92 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.03 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.20 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.59 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.67 percent.

Economics

The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in October, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.4 percent growth.

U.S. housing starts rose to an annual rate of 1.32 million in October, versus a revised 1.05 million in September. Economists expected a rate of 1.17 million for the month.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index declined to a reading of 7.6 in November, versus a reading of 9.7 in October. Economists were expecting a reading of 8.

Initial jobless claims dropped 19,000 to 235,000 in the latest week. Economists projected claims to total 257,000 in the week.

Supplies of natural gas increased 30 billion cubic feet for the week ended November 11, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak in New York at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans is set to speak in Chicago at 2:45 p.m. ET.

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