Mid-Day Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Positive; Meet Group Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.01% to 26,079.27 while the NASDAQ rose 0.45% to 7,820.30. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.2% to 2,893.52.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares rose 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. EPRT, up 6%, and Newmark Group, Inc. NMRK, up 4%.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell 0.6%.

Top Headline

PepsiCo, Inc. PEP reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter.

PepsiCo reported third-quarter earnings of $1.56 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.5. The company reported quarterly sales of $17.19 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $16.93 billion. Pepsi expects FY19 adjusted EPS of $5.50.


Equities Trading UP

PDS Biotechnology Corporation PDSB shares shot up 23% to $3.6780 after the company reported a clinical collaboration with Merck for evaluation of combo of PDS0101, Merck's KEYTRUDA.

Shares of The Meet Group, Inc. MEET surged 20% to $3.78 after the company raised its Q3 preliminary guidance.

Catalyst Biosciences, Inc. CBIO was up, rising 11% to $5.52 after the company issued an update on DalcA Phase 2b trial.

Equities Trading DOWN

GoPro, Inc. GPRO shares tumbled 20% to $4.1150 after the company announced Wednesday afternoon a last-minute production delay for its new flagship HERO8 Black camera. GoPro sees preliminary third-quarter sales of $123 million-$127 million versus a $308.2 million estimate.

Shares of AngioDynamics, Inc. ANGO were down 16% to $14.81 after the company reported downbeat Q1 sales and lowered its FY20 earnings forecast. AngioDynamics also reported the purchase of Eximo Medical.

Resources Connection, Inc. RECN was down, falling 15% to $14.23 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 sales results.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.2% to $51.99, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,515.50.

Silver traded down 0.1% Thursday to $17.68, while copper fell 0.5% to $2.5575.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.02%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.11%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.06%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 2.76%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.3% while UK shares fell 0.63%.

Economics

Initial jobless claims increased 4,000 to 219,000 in the latest week.

The IHS Markit composite PMI climbed to 51 in September, versus 50.7 in the prior month.

U.S. factory orders fell 0.1% for August.

The ISM non-manufacturing PMI fell to 52.6 in September, versus 56.4 in the prior month.

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

Federal Reserve Board of Governors Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will speak in New York at 6:35 p.m. ET.