Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Alibaba Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.22% to 27633.14 while the NASDAQ rose 0.25% to 11,174.30. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.12% to 3,370.47.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 5,530,240 cases with around 173,190 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,456,650 COVID-19 cases with 111,100 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,836,920 confirmed cases and 53,860 deaths. In total, there were at least 22,427,930 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 788,030 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares gained 0.8% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included STORE Capital Corporation STOR, up 4%, and Realogy Holdings Corp. RLGY, up 6%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 1.5%.

Top Headline

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd - ADR BABA reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Alibaba reported quarterly earnings of $2.10 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $1.99 per share. The company’s sales came in at $21.76 billion, exceeding expectations of $21.34 billion.

Equities Trading UP

OpGen, Inc. OPGN shares shot up 46% to $2.9999 after the company announced its subsidiary obtained the CE mark certification in the European Union for its own SARS-CoV-2 Kit with PULB detection of SARS-CoV-2.

Shares of AutoWeb, Inc. AUTO got a boost, shooting 25% to $3.415 after the company said it sees preliminary July sales at $6.1 million. B. Riley FBR and Lake Street upgraded the stock to Buy.

FinVolution Group FINV shares were also up, gaining 21% to $2.50. FinVolution is expected to release Q2 results on August 25.

Equities Trading DOWN

Opera Limited OPRA shares tumbled 22% to $8.10 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results.

Shares of Blink Charging Co. BLNK were down 19% to $7.69 after declining about 8% on Wednesday. Blink Charging reported Q2 results last week.

Teligent, Inc. TLGT was down, falling 16% to $1.69. Craig-Hallum downgraded Teligent from Buy to Hold. Teligent reported a Q2 loss on Wednesday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1% to $42.51, while gold traded down 1.7% to $1,936.50.

Silver traded down 1.4% Thursday to $26.96, while copper fell 1.9% to $2.9645.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.7%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.9%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.9%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.8%, French CAC 40 fell 0.9% and UK shares fell 1%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims increased to 1.11 million in the latest week, versus 971,000 in the previous week.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index dropped 7 points to a reading of 17.2 in August.

The index of leading economic indicators increased 1.4% for July.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly is set to speak at 1:00 p.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 recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.