Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Drops 5%; Alpha and Omega Semi Shares Gain On Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.16 percent to 20,924.07 while the NASDAQ declined 0.07 percent to 6,068.34. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.07 percent to 2,386.37.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector was the top gainer in the US market on Thursday. Top gainers in the sector included Craft Brew Alliance Inc BREW, MGP Ingredients Inc MGPI, and Align Technology, Inc. ALGN.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.82 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Unit Corporation UNT, down 20 percent, and Resolute Energy Corp REN, down 11 percent.

Top Headline

Viacom, Inc. VIAB posted upbeat results for its second quarter on Thursday.

Viacom said it earned $0.79 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $3.256 billion; Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.76 per share on revenue of $3.18 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Ltd AOSL shares shot up 24 percent to $20.06 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc ARWR got a boost, shooting up 24 percent to $1.93 after the company reported strong Q2 results.

FreightCar America, Inc. RAIL shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $15.51 following Q1 results. FreightCar America reported Q1 earnings of $0.05 per share on revenue of $139.5 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Tuesday Morning Corporation TUES shares dropped 33 percent to $2.12 as the company posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.

Shares of Biopharmx Corp BPMX were down around 39 percent to $0.515. BioPharmX disclosed that it achieved primary endpoint in Phase 2b trial of BPX-01, but missed secondary endpoint.

Spirit Realty Capital, Inc (New) SRC was down, falling around 21 percent to $7.04 after the company posted weak quarterly earnings. JP Morgan downgraded Spirit Realty Capital from Overweight to Neutral.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 5 percent to $45.43 while gold traded down 1.61 percent to $1,228.40.

Silver traded down 1.37 percent Thursday to $16.32, while copper fell 1.26 percent to $2.5115.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 surged 0.67 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.62 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.98 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.72 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.12 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.20 percent.

Economics

U.S. trade deficit declined 0.1 percent to $43.7 billion in March. However, economists were expecting a $44.5 billion deficit. Exports dropped 0.9 percent to $191 billion in the month, while imports slipped 0.7 percent to $234.7 billion.

Initial jobless claims dropped 19,000 to 238,000 in the last week of April, the government said Thursday. Economists were expecting new claims to total 247,000 for the week.

U.S. nonfarm productivity declined 0.60 percent for the first quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.20 percent growth.

U.S. factory orders rose 0.20 percent for March, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.40 percent increase.

Supplies of natural gas climbed 67 billion cubic feet in the week ended April 28, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a gain of 61 billion cubic feet for the week.

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