Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls Over 300 Points; Veritone Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.2% to 25,754.70 while the NASDAQ rose 0.39% to 10,532.55. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.55% to 3,152.65.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 3,055,140 cases with around 132,300 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 1,713,160 COVID-19 cases with 67,960 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 767,290 confirmed cases and 21,120 deaths. In total, there were at least 12,062,860 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 549,900 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose 0.3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Veritone Inc VERI, up 26%, and OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. OCFT, up 17%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 4%.

Top Headline

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales exceeded views.

Walgreens reported quarterly earnings of $0.83 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $1.18 per share. The company reported sales of $34.60 billion, exceeding expectations of $34.32 billion.

Walgreens said it expects FY20 adjusted earnings of $4.65 to $4.75 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $5.42 per share.

Equities Trading UP

CleanSpark, Inc. CLSK shares shot up 42% to $4.39 after the company announced it won a $2.9 million grant with ReJoule from the California Energy Commission.

Shares of Veritone, Inc. VERI got a boost, shooting 26% to $15.35 after the company raised its Q2 guidance. Veritone said it now expects an adjusted net loss of $5.8 million to $6.0 million for the second quarter and revenue between $13.1 million and $13.3 million.

Birks Group Inc. BGI shares were also up, gaining 67% to $1.33 after the company reported a 12.2% year-over-year growth in FY20 sales.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY shares tumbled 24% to $7.92 after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss for its first quarter and announced plans to close 200 stores in the next two year.

Shares of NanoViricides, Inc. NNVC were down 11% to $7.78. NanoViricides priced its 1.37 million share offering at $7.30 per share.

AZZ Inc. AZZ was down, falling 11% to $29.49 after the company reported a significant year-over-year decline in Q1 earnings.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 3% to $39.68, while gold traded down 0.8% to $1,806.60.

Silver traded down 0.9% Thursday to $18.99, while copper rose 0.7% to $2.8445.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.77%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.22%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.98%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 dropped 0.04%, French CAC 40 slipped 1.21% and UK shares fell 1.73%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims declined to 1.314 million for the latest week, versus prior reading of 1.427 million. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 1.375 million.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 5.4% for May, versus analysts’ expectations for a 4% decline.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 56 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 3, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were projecting a rise of 55 billion cubic feet.

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