Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Gold Rises 2%; Bed Bath & Beyond Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.74% to 34,136.80 while the NASDAQ rose 0.36% to 14,565.16. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.25% to 4,348.69.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 43,349,440 cases with around 695,110 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,739,980 cases and 448,060 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,399,540 COVID-19 cases with 596,120 deaths. In total, there were at least 233,286,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,774,570 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped 0.5% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Lizhi Inc. LIZI, up 12% and So-Young International Inc. SY up 7%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

CarMax, Inc. KMX reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Thursday.

CarMax reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.72 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $1.89 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $7.99 billion, versus expectations of $6.85 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. SPCE shares shot up 14% to $25.73 after the company announced it was cleared to fly FAA-licensed spaceflights following the conclusion of an FAA inquiry related to the Unity 22 flight in July.

Shares of Onion Global Limited OG got a boost, shooting 36% to $9.27. Onion Global announced plans to launch the "LUCA Elite Club" events in its KOC community to enhance distribution channel efficiency.

AngioDynamics, Inc. ANGO shares were also up, gaining 13% to $26.46 after the company reported upbeat Q1 results and raised FY22 sales guidance.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Kaival Brands Innovations Group, Inc. KAVL shares tumbled 29% to $1.36 after the company reported pricing of $8.0 million underwritten public offering of common stock and warrants.

Shares of Jerash Holdings (US), Inc. JRSH were down 13% to $6.85 as the company reported pricing of $7.0 million public offering of common stock.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY was down, falling 20% to $17.83 after reporting downbeat quarterly results. The company also issued Q3 guidance below estimates.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $75.26, while gold traded up 2% to $1,756.60.

Silver traded up 3.2% Thursday to $22.175 while copper fell 2.1% to $4.1105.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.05%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.94% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.68%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.31%, French CAC 40 dropped 0.62% and Italy’s FTSE MIB slipped 0.21%.

Annual house price growth in the UK eased to 10% in September from 11% in the prior month, while current account deficit shrank to GBP 8.6 billion in the June quarter from GBP 8.8 billion in the prior period. The British economy grew by 5.5% on quarter during the third quarter.

German unemployment rate stood at 3.6% in August unchanged from August’s 16-month low level. Annual inflation rate in France rose to 2.1% in September from 1.9% in August, while Spain's retail sales fell 0.9% from a year ago in August.

Economics

The US economy grew at a rate of 6.7% on quarter during the second quarter.

US initial jobless claims increased rose for a third consecutive week to 362,000 in the week ending September 25.

Corporate profits rose 10.5% to a record high of $2.44 trillion during the second quarter.

The Chicago PMI fell to 64.7 for September from 66.8 in August.

US natural-gas supplies climbed 88 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Data on farm prices for August will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here