Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Procter & Gamble Tops Q4 Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.81% to 26060.12 while the NASDAQ fell 0.85% to 10453.02. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.39% to 3,213.22.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 4,427,490 cases with around 150,710 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,552,260 COVID-19 cases with 90,130 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 1,582,020 confirmed cases and 34,950 deaths. In total, there were at least 17,054,810 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 667,700 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares slipped by just 0.3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Molson Coors Beverage Company TAP, up 4%, and Ambev S.A. ABEV, up 3%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares tumbled by 4.5%.

Top Headline

Procter & Gamble Co PG reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Procter & Gamble posted quarterly earnings of $1.16 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.01 per share. The company reported sales of $17.70 billion, surpassing expectations of $16.97 billion.

PG announced it expects all-in sales growth of 1%-3% year-over-year and EPS growth of 3%-7% year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

Taoping Inc. TAOP shares shot up 188% to $5.88 as the company disclosed that it has upgraded its Taoping Smart Cloud Platform to expand its business.

Shares of Edesa Biotech, Inc. EDSA got a boost, shooting 157% to $13.39 after the company filed an IND application for a phase 2/3 Coronavirus study.

FSD Pharma Inc. HUGE shares were also up, gaining 38% to $5.15 after the company said it has notified Health Canada of its decision to forfeit the licenses of its wholly owned subsidiary, FV Pharma, and suspend all activities by FV Pharma within 30 days of the notification date. FSD Pharma said it has started the process of liquidating all FV Pharma assets, including the sale of the company's cannabis production facility in Cobourg, Ontario.

Equities Trading DOWN

Genocea Biosciences, Inc. GNCA shares tumbled 33% to $3.345 after the company said initial clinical data on the first five patients from Part B of a Phase 1/2 study that's exploring the combination of GEN-009 and immune checkpoint inhibitor-based regimens in advanced solid tumorsshowed that three achieved independent RECIST responses starting from the first GEN-009 dose.

Shares of Kraton Corporation KRA were down 22% to $14.35 after reporting results for its second quarter.

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SPPI was down, falling 21% to $3.06 after the company priced its 21.67 million share offering at $3 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 2% to $40.43, while gold traded down 0.3% to $1,946.90.

Silver traded down 3.8% Thursday to $23.395, while copper fell 0.6% to $2.9005.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.2%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 dropped 2.3%, French CAC 40 fell 1.1% and UK shares fell 1.6%.

Economics

The US economy shrank by an annualized rate of 32.9% during the second quarter, versus analysts’ expectations of a 34.1% contraction.

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 1.43 million for the week ended July 25, versus analysts’ estimates of 1.45 million.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled to 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 money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.