Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down 2%; Sears Shares Rise After Q1 Beat

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.26 percent to 21,066.59 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.53 percent to 6,195.90. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.35 percent to 2,412.89.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector was the top gainer in the US market on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Bristow Group Inc BRS, down 14 percent, and Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. ANW, down 10 percent.

Top Headline

Best Buy Co Inc BBY reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

The big-box retailer said it earned $0.60 per share in the quarter on revenue of $8.528 billion. By comparison, the company earned $0.43 per share in the same quarter a year ago on revenue of $8.443 billion. Operating income fell from $372 million a year ago to $300 million. Analysts expected earnings of $0.40 per share on revenue of $8.27 billion.

Enterprise comparable sales rose 1.6 percent in the quarter while domestic comparable sales rose 1.4 percent.

Equities Trading UP

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. BCRX shares shot up 40 percent to $7.18 after the company reported additional results from a second interim analysis of its Phase 2 APeX-1 clinical trial. BioCryst disclosed that 125 mg dose Of BCX7353 showed a 73 percent reduction of overall attack rate in HAE patients.

Shares of Sears Holdings Corp SHLD got a boost, shooting up 24 percent to $9.24 after the company posted a narrower-than-expected Q1 loss. The company’s sales also exceeded expectations.

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc AERI shares were also up, gaining 33 percent to $53.70 as the company reported positive Roclatan Phase 3 efficacy results on Wednesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Genesco Inc. GCO shares dropped 19 percent to $35.95 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results.

Shares of International Game Technology IGT were down 13 percent to $18.21 after the company reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. HOS was down, falling around 18 percent to $1.83. Time Inc TIME will replace Hornbeck Offshore Services in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Friday, June 2.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2 percent to $50.35 while gold traded up 0.20 percent to $1,259.00.

Silver traded up 0.48 percent Thursday to $17.20, while copper rose 0.81 percent to $2.6045.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.08 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.29 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.52 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.26 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.13 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.04 percent.

Economics

The trade deficit for goods climbed to $67.6 billion in April, versus $65.1 billion in March. However, economists were projecting a deficit of $64 billion for April. Wholesale inventories declined 0.3 percent in April, while retail inventories slipped 0.3 percent.

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 1,000 to 234,000 for the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 238,000 in the week.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 75 billion cubic feet for the week ended May 19, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a gain of 68 billion cubic feet.

The Treasury is set to auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard will speak in Tokyo at 10:00 p.m. ET.