Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Viacom Profit Tops Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.56% to 26152.13 while the NASDAQ rose 0.99% to 7940.91. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.87% to 2,909.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. VSI, up 40%, and Carvana Co. CVNA, up 22%.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

Viacom, Inc. VIA reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and sales results.

The company reported quarterly earnings of $1.20 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.07. Viacom reported quarterly sales of $3.36 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $3.33 billion. Its domestic advertising revenue increased 6% to $976 million.

Equities Trading UP

Corindus Vascular Robotics, Inc. CVRS shares shot up 76% to $4.26 after the company announced it will be acquired by Siemens Healthineers AG for $4.28 per share in cash representing an aggregate purchase price of $1.1 billion.

Shares of Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. VSI got a boost, shooting up 40% to $6.36 after the company announced it will be acquired by Liberty Tax for $6.50 per shares in cash, or $208 million deal.

Avedro, Inc. AVDR shares were also up, gaining 37% to $23.35. Glaukos Corp GKOS announced an agreement to acquire Avedro in an all-stock deal. Avedro also released its second-quarter results, which showed 63% revenue growth.

Equities Trading DOWN

PlayAGS, Inc. AGS shares tumbled 48% to $9.02 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 EPS and sales results.

Shares of Green Dot Corporation GDOT were down 42% to $27.52 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 sales results. The company also issued Q3 guidance below analyst estimates and lowered FY19 guidance below analyst estimates.

GTT Communications, Inc. GTT was down, falling 38% to $7.00 after the company reported weak Q2 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.9% to $52.04, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,509.90.

Silver traded down 0.9% Thursday to $17.035, while copper rose 0.6% to $2.587.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.9%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.7%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.6%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.8%, and the French CAC 40 rose 1.2% while UK shares rose 0.2%.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 8,000 to 209,000 in the latest week, the government reported. Economists were expecting a reading of 215,000.

U.S. wholesale inventories were unchanged for June.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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

The Treasury will auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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