Crude Oil Rises 1.5%; PepsiCo Earnings Top Views

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 1% on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.15% to 34,397.80 while the NASDAQ rose 1.40% to 14,114.17. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.71% to 4,504.12.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares climbed by 2.4% on Thursday.
• In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 0.9%.

Top Headline

PepsiCo Inc PEP reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and raised FY23 outlook.

PepsiCo reported second-quarter FY23 sales growth of 10.4% year-on-year to $22.32 billion, beating the analyst consensus of $21.73 billion. Adjusted EPS of $2.09 beat the analyst consensus of $1.96.

PepsiCo raised the FY23 organic revenue growth outlook to 10% (previous outlook 8%).

Equities Trading UP

• Jiuzi Holdings, Inc. JZXN shares shot up 49% to $4.16. The stock began trading on a 1:18 reverse split on July 10.
• Shares of Nikola Corporation NKLA got a boost, shooting 35% to $1.8699 on above-average volume. The company and BayoTech announced an agreement to advance reliable hydrogen supply for zero-emission commercial fuel cell electric vehicle fleets.
• Camtek Ltd. CAMT shares were also up, gaining 19% to $40.16 after the company announced it received orders for 42 systems from several tier-1 semiconductor manufacturers and said order momentum increased expectations for a stronger second half of 2023.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Viasat, Inc. VSAT shares dropped 28% to $30.84 after the company reported an unexpected event during reflector deployment that may impact ViaSat-3 Americas satellite performance.
• Shares of Cryoport, Inc. CYRX were down 27% to $14.20 after the company announced lower than expected interim second-quarter earnings, FY23 guidance.
• First Wave BioPharma, Inc. FWBI was down, falling 32% to $0.9130 after the company said preliminary data from Phase 2 SPAN trial indicate that it is likely the primary efficacy endpoint was not achieved.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $76.87 while gold traded up 0.1% at $1,963.20.

Silver traded up 2.4% to $24.90 on Thursday while copper rose 2.3% to $3.9425.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.61%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.32% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 0.26% The German DAX gained 0.74% French CAC 40 climbed 0.50% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.78%.

Industrial production in the Eurozone increased by 0.2% month-over-month in May following a 1.0% growth in the prior month. The annual inflation rate in France fell to 4.5% in June from 5.1% in the earlier month.

The UK trade deficit widened to GBP 6.58 billion in May, with exports falling by 2.6% and imports increasing by 3.1%. Industrial production in the UK dropped 0.6% month-over-month in May. The British economy shrank 0.1% month-over-month in May versus a 0.2% increase in April.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.49%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 2.60%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising 1.26%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.25%.

Chinese trade surplus narrowed to $70.62 billion in June from $97.41 billion in the year-ago period. Imports to China dropped by 6.8% year-over-year, while exports declined 12.4% year-over-year.

Economics

• Producer prices for final demand in the U.S. rose 0.1% month-over-month in June versus a revised 0.4% decline in May, and down from market expectations of a 0.2% increase.
• U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 12,000 from the previous week to 237,000 in the week ending July 8, compared to market estimates of 250,000.
• U.S. natural-gas supplies increased 49 billion cubic feet last week, the EIA said.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 107,365,540 cases with around 1,168,550 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,994,660 cases and 531,910 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 691,436,610 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,899,180 deaths.