Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Bristol-Myers Squibb Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.81% to 30,973.30 while the NASDAQ rose 0.41% to 13,666.00. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.56% to 3,851.76.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 26,559,010 cases with around 450,820 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,790,180 confirmed cases and 154,700 deaths, while Brazil reported over 9,339,420 COVID-19 cases with 227,560 deaths. In total, there were at least 104,484,970 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,271,230 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 1.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Mogo Inc MOGO, up 17%, and Weidai Ltd WEI, up 13%.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell by 0.7%.

Top Headline

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter and raised its full-year earnings forecast.

Bristol Myers reported quarterly earnings of $1.46 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.41 per share. The company posted revenue of $11.10 billion, versus estimates of $10.73 billion.

Bristol Myers raised FY21 adjusted earnings guidance from $7.15-$7.45 per share to $7.35-$7.55 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Anavex Life Sciences Corp. AVXL shares shot up 115% to $22.52 after climbing more than 37% on Wednesday.

Shares of CPS Technologies Corporation CPSH got a boost, shooting 61% to $26.63. CPS Technologies shares jumped 138% on Wednesday after the company reported it received a purchase order for HybridTech Armor Panels for an aircraft carrier.

Lizhi Inc. LIZI shares were also up, gaining 55% to $13.16 after the company announced a cooperation agreement with Pop Mart to become the first branded podcast on LIZHI Podcast.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Tyme Technologies, Inc. TYME shares tumbled 33% to $2.38 after the company announced Q3 earnings results and issued a business update.

Shares of Lannett Company, Inc. LCI were down 18% to $6.17 after the company cut FY21 sales guidance.

Ballantyne Strong, Inc BTN was down, falling 17% to $2.44 after the company priced its underwritten public offering of 3,290,000 shares of its common stock at $2.30 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $56.00, while gold traded down 1.1% to $1,814.40.

Silver traded down 1.1% Thursday to $26.58 while copper fell 0.1% to $3.5635.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.5% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.4%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 gained 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB surged 0.5%.

Eurozone's retail trade increased 2.0% in December following a revised 5.7% decline in November, while construction PMI slipped to 44.1 in January from 45.5 in December. UK construction PMI declined to 49.2 in January from 54.6 in the earlier month, while new car registrations dipped 39.5% year-over-year to 90,249 units in January.

Economics

US initial jobless claims dropped to 779,000 in the week ended January 30th, versus a revised figure of 812,000 in the previous week.

Nonfarm labor productivity dropped by an annualized 4.8% in the last quarter, while unit labor costs surged an annualized 6.8%.

US factory orders rose 1.1% for December.

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 Dallas President Robert Kaplan is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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

Check out the full economic calendar here