Mid-Day Market Update: Macy's Jumps After Q2 Results; PharmaCyte Biotech Shares Drop

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.40% to 34,819.43 while the NASDAQ rose 0.07% to 14,535.52. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03% to 4,398.74.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 37,017,890 cases with around 623,320 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 32,285,850 cases and 432,510 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,416,180 COVID-19 cases with 570,590 deaths. In total, there were at least 208,653,610 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,383,330 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares rose 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Surgalign Holdings, Inc. SRGA, up 8% and Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corporation ADMP up 10%.

In trading on Thursday, energy fell 3.4%.

Top Headline

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. EL reported better-than-expected sales for its fourth quarter on Thursday.

Estee Lauder reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.78 per share, surpassing analysts’ expectations of $0.50 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $3.94 billion, versus estimates of $3.75 billion.

Estee Lauder said it sees Q1 earnings of $1.55-$1.65 and FY22 earnings of $7.23 to $7.38 per share. The company also projects FY22 sales growth of 13%-16%

Equities Trading UP

Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNOA shares shot up 66% to $8.98 in reaction to the launch of two new dental products. OroGenix Oral Hygiene Rinse is Sonoma's second dental product in the U.S. and was developed with its partner Gabriel Science LLC. Additionally, Sonoma and its partner, Medical Systems Solutions, have launched Microdacyn Oral Care for professional and consumer use in Switzerland.

Shares of DLocal Limited DLO got a boost, shooting 31% to $64.50 after the company reported a sharp rise in quarterly sales. The company’s total payment volume came in at $1.5 billion, up 319% year over year.

Macy's, Inc. M shares were also up, gaining 16% to $20.89 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results. The company also raised FY21 guidance.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

PharmaCyte Biotech, Inc. PMCB shares tumbled 62% to $3.78 after the company announced a $70 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules. PharmaCyte Biotech shares jumped over 189% on Wednesday on abnormally-high volume following the company's recent listing on the Nasdaq.

Shares of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. RRGB were down 22% to $19.07 after the company reported second-quarter FY21 revenue growth of 71.9% year-on-year, to $276.98 million, missing the analyst consensus of $279.99 million.

The OLB Group, Inc. OLB was down, falling 32% to $3.7004 after the company reported a $6.1 million registered direct offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.8% to $62.95, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,781.50.

Silver traded down 0.8% Thursday to $23.23 while copper fell 2.2% to $4.0285.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.77%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.85% and the German DAX 30 dipped 1.58%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.81%, French CAC 40 tumbled 2.55% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 1.72%.

The Eurozone’s current account surplus increased to EUR 24.0 billion in June compared to EUR 18.4 billion in the year-ago month. Spain's trade balance swung to a deficit of EUR 0.98 billion in June versus a year-ago surplus of EUR 1.48 billion.

Economics

US initial jobless claims fell to 348 thousand in the week ending August 14th.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index dropped to 19.4 in August.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.9% for July.

US natural-gas supplies rose 46 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

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

Check out the full economic calendar here