Nasdaq Up 1%; Meta Shares Surge Following Upbeat Results

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 1% on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.15% to 35,573.49 while the NASDAQ rose 1.03% to 14,273.02. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.55% to 4,591.91.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares climbed by 2.9% on Thursday.
• In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell by 0.7%.

Top Headline

Meta Platforms, Inc. META shares jumped 7% on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results.

Meta Platforms reported second quarter revenue of $32 billion, which was up 11% year-over-year. The revenue total came in ahead of a Street consensus estimate of $31.12 billion. Earnings per share totaled $2.98 in the second quarter, beating a Street consensus estimate of $2.91.

Equities Trading UP

• Carmell Therapeutics Corporation CTCX shares shot up 41% to $4.24 after the company announced a merger with Axolotl Biologix.
• Shares of Femasys Inc. FEMY got a boost, shooting 174% to $0.9990 after the company announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a Notice of Allowance for FemBloc for permanent birth control.
• North American Construction Group Ltd. NOA shares were also up, gaining 38% to $25.96 after the company posted better-than-expected second-quarter results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. MRSN shares dropped 77% to $0.9166 after the company said UPLIFT clinical trial of upifitamab rilsodotin did not meet primary endpoint.
• Shares of TPI Composites, Inc. TPIC were down 35% to $6.95 after the company lowered its 2023 forecast.
• Asensus Surgical, Inc. ASXC was down, falling 35% to $0.3289 as the company reported a $10 million registered direct offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $79.94 while gold traded down 1.3% at $1,944.80.

Silver traded down 2.7% to $24.30 on Thursday while copper fell 0.9% to $3.8670.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.32%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.33% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.08% The German DAX gained 1.5% French CAC 40 climbed 2.03% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 1.98%.

The European Central Bank increased interest rates by 25 basis points. Germany's GfK Consumer Climate Indicator increased to -24.4 heading into August versus a revised reading of -25.2 in the previous month. Consumer confidence in Italy fell to 106.7 in July from 108.6 in the prior month, while manufacturing confidence index declined to 99.3 in July versus a revised 100.2 a month ago.

Spain's retail trade growth increased to 6.4% year-over-year in June versus a revised 6.1% in the prior month, while jobless rate declined to 11.6% in the second quarter from 13.3% in the prior three-month period. UK car production rose 16.2% year-over-year to 84,767 units in June.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.68%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.20% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 1.41%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.7%.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (lifted the base rate by 25bps to 5.75%. Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms fell by 16.8% from a year ago to CNY 3,388.46 billion during the first six months of the year. Australia's import prices declined by 0.8% quarter-on-quarter in three months to June, while export prices fell by 8.5% on quarter.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 7,000 from the previous week to 221,000 in the week ended July 22, recording the lowest level in five months, and compared to market estimates of 235,000.
• The U.S. economy grew by an annualized 2.4% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter, compared to 2% in the prior period and higher than market estimates of 1.8%.
• U.S. durable goods orders surged 4.7% month-over-month in June versus a revised 2% growth in May.
• The U.S. trade deficit in goods shrank to $87.8 billion in June versus a revised $91.9 billion gap in the prior month.
• Wholesale inventories in the U.S. declined 0.3% month-over-month in June, the same as in the earlier month.
• U.S. pending home sales rose 0.3% month-over-month in June.
• U.S. natural-gas supplies increased 16 billion cubic feet during the week that ended July 21, 2023.

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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 107,498,920 cases with around 1,169,740 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,995,390 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 692,169,020 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,902,970 deaths.