Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Campbell Soup Beats Q4 Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.41% to 28982.29 while the NASDAQ fell 2.26% to 11784.31. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.07% to 3542.57.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 6,115,030 cases with around 185,750 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,997,860 COVID-19 cases with 123,780 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 3,853,400 confirmed cases and 67,370 deaths. In total, there were at least 26,056,770 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 863,570 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained 1.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Whiting Petroleum Corporation WLL, up 8%, and Callon Petroleum Company CPE, up 5%.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell by 2.8%.

Top Headline

Campbell Soup Company CPB reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Campbell reported quarterly earnings of $0.63 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $0.60 per share. The company reported sales of $2.11 billion versus expectations of $2.08 billion.

For the fiscal first quarter, Campbell Soup projects adjusted earnings of $0.88 to $0.92 per share and sales to increase 5% to 7%.

Equities Trading UP

Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. KCAC shares shot up 48% to $14.77. Quantumscape will list On NYSE through merger with Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp.

Shares of Garrett Motion Inc. GTX got a boost, shooting 22% to $3.2917. Garrett Motion, last week, said it is exploring alternatives for balance sheet restructuring.

Fulgent Genetics, Inc. FLGT shares were also up, gaining 21% to $34.75 after the company said it is partnering with the New York City Health and Hospitals to provide COVID-19 testing to students across approximately 1,600 locations as they return to school in September and over the next several months.

Equities Trading DOWN

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. AKBA shares tumbled 72% to $2.824 after the company announced top-line results from its PRO2TECT Global Phase 3 program on vadadustat, which did not meet its primary safety MACE endpoint.

Shares of Zuora, Inc. ZUO were down 28% to $11.63. Zuora reported upbeat Q2 results, but issued weak sales forecast for the current quarter.

PagerDuty, Inc. PD was down, falling 28% to $25.07 after the company issued weak earnings guidance.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.9% to $40.73, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,936.40.

Silver traded down 1% Thursday to $27.13, while copper fell 1.1% to $2.986.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.9%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 1.4%, French CAC 40 climbed 1.9% and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.8%.

The IHS Markit eurozone services PMI slipped to 50.5 in August from July’s reading of 54.7.

Economics

The US trade deficit increased to $63.6 billion in July versus a revised $53.5 billion deficit in June. Exports rose 8.2%, while imports climbed 10.9% in July.

U.S. initial jobless claims declined to 881,000 in the week ended August 29, versus 1.006 million in the previous week.

Labor productivity increased by an annualized 10.1% in the second quarter, while unit labor costs rose by 9.0%.

The IHS Markit services PMI rose to 55.0 in August versus a preliminary estimate of 54.8.

The ISM non-manufacturing PMI dropped to 56.9 in August versus 58.1 in the prior month.

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

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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