Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Rises 100 Points; Opera Shares Plunge Following Q2 Results

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.16% to 27,738.01 while the NASDAQ rose 0.9% to 11,246.50. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.27% to 3,383.81.

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 1.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Service Properties Trust SVC, up 6%, and Realogy Holdings Corp. RLGY, up 8%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 1.7%.

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 39% to $2.85 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 16% to $3.16 after the company said it sees preliminary July sales at $6.1 million. B. Riley FBR and Lake Street upgraded the stock to Buy.

Naked Brand Group Limited NAKD shares were also up, gaining 44% to $0.3605 after the company announced an agreement with St. George Investments amending the convertible promissory note issued by the company in February 2020.

Equities Trading DOWN

Opera Limited OPRA shares tumbled 22% to $8.05 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results.

Shares of Sypris Solutions, Inc. SYPR were down 30% to $1.29. Sypris Solutions won an order for Alberta XPress gas project.

Teligent, Inc. TLGT was down, falling 22% to $1.5755. Craig-Hallum downgraded Teligent from Buy to Hold. Teligent reported a Q2 loss on Wednesday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.8% to $42.59, while gold traded down 1.1% to $1,947.80.

Silver traded down 0.6% Thursday to $27.17, while copper fell 1.4% to $2.9805.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.07%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.42%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.44%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 1.14%, French CAC 40 fell 1.33% and UK shares fell 1.61%.

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.

Natural-gas supplies rose 43 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 14, the Energy Information Administration said. However, analysts projected a gain of 39 billion cubic feet.

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