Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Lower; Twitter Tops Q1 Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.76% to 24447.56 while the NASDAQ rose 0.06% to 8919.90. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.60% to 2,922.01.

The U.S. is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 1,040,480 coronavirus cases with around 60,990 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 236,890 coronavirus cases with 24,270 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 203,590 confirmed cases and 27,680 deaths. In total, there were at least 3,207,240 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 227,970 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed 0.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included OneSpaWorld Holdings Limited OSW, up 22%, and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. FLWS, up 12%.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell 2%.

Top Headline

Twitter Inc TWTR reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Twitter reported quarterly earnings of $0.11 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.10 per share. The company’s sales came in at $807.64 million, exceeding the consensus view of $775.96 million.

Twitter’s average monetizable daily active users climbed to 166 million during the first quarter, up from 134 million in the year-ago period.

Equities Trading UP

AgEagle Aerial Systems, Inc. UAVS shares shot up 103% to $4.66 after jumping 160% on Wednesday.

Shares of Matador Resources Company MTDR got a boost, shooting 32% to $8.88 after the company reported upbeat quarterly earnings.

LMP Automotive Holdings, Inc. LMPX shares were also up, gaining 29% to $6.04.

Equities Trading DOWN

Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK shares tumbled 37% to $16.87 after a report emerged that the company is preparing a bankruptcy filing, citing people familiar with the matter. Chesapeake Energy has held discussions with creditors about a possible loan that would aid operations while it goes through bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported on Wednesday afternoon.

Shares of Verona Pharma plc VRNA were down 25% to $4.43 after the company reported financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2020, and issued a corporate update.

Zovio Inc ZVO was down, falling 21% to $1.6217 after the company reported Q1 results.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 16% to $17.47, while gold traded up 1% to $1,729.70.

Silver traded up 2.7% Thursday to $15.73, while copper rose 0.1% to $2.3735.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.2%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.6%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.2%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.1% while UK shares fell 1%.

Economics

U.S. jobless claims climbed 3.8 million for the latest week, versus 4.442 million in the earlier week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 3.5 million.

The employment cost index rose 0.8% for the first quarter.

U.S. consumer spending dropped 7.5% for March, versus analysts’ expectations for a 5% decline. Personal income declined 2.0% in March.

The Chicago PMI fell by 12.4 points to a reading of 35.4 in April.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled 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.

Data on farm prices for March will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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