Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Surges 100 Points; Varex Imaging Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.13% to 27939.90 while the NASDAQ rose 0.91% to 11,113. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.13% to 3,384.64.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 5,201,230 cases with around 166,110 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,164,780 COVID-19 cases with 104,200 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,396,630 confirmed cases and 47,030 deaths. In total, there were at least 20,666,150 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 750,370 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares gained 0.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited CHU, up 19%, and AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC, up 16%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter, but issued a weak forecast for the current quarter.

Earnings per share came in at $0.80, which beat the estimate of $0.74. The company posted revenue of $12.20 billion, exceeding expectations of $12.08 billion.

Cisco said it expects Q1 adjusted EPS of $0.69-$0.71, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.76. Sales are projected to decline 9% to 11% year over year.

Equities Trading UP

FAT Brands Inc. FAT shares shot up 117% to $7.65 after the company announced it planned to acquire Johnny Rockets for $25 million.

Shares of NTN Buzztime, Inc. NTN got a boost, shooting 154% to $4.6899 after the company reported a merger deal with Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics.

GrowGeneration Corp. GRWG shares were also up, gaining 36% to $11.88 after the company reported a rise in Q2 earnings and sales. The company also raised its FY20 guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Newgioco Group, Inc. NWGI shares tumbled 23% to $2.05 after the company reported pricing of $10.0 million underwritten public offering.

Shares of Varex Imaging Corporation VREX were down 22% to $12.44 after the company reported a Q3 loss of $0.20 per share. Oppenheimer also downgraded the stock from Outperform to Perform.

RiceBran Technologies RIBT was down, falling 33% to $0.5499 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q2 results.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $42.40, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,957.60.

Silver traded up 3.2% Thursday to $26.815, while copper fell 3.2% to $2.799.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.63%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.62%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.88%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.5%, French CAC 40 fell 0.61% and UK shares fell 1.5%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 963,000 in the week ended August 8, versus analysts’ estimates of 1.1 million.

U.S. import prices increased 0.7% in July after rising 1.4% in June. Export prices rose 0.8% in July, following a revised 1.2% gain in June.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 58 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 7, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a rise of 51 billion cubic feet.

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.