Dow Surges 250 Points; Exxon Mobil Earnings Miss Expectations

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 250 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.72% to 35,535.23 while the NASDAQ rose 1.89% to 14,316.53. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.09% to 4,587.09.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares climbed by 2.7% on Friday.
• In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

Exxon Mobil Corp XOM reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings.

Exxon Mobil reported quarterly revenue of $82.91 billion, beating the consensus of $80.19 billion. The company reported adjusted earnings of $7.9 billion, lower than $17.6 billion a year ago, owing to lower natural gas realizations and industry refining margins. Adjusted EPS of $1.94 missed the consensus estimate of $2.01.

Equities Trading UP

• Business First Bancshares, Inc. BFST shares shot up 28% to $21.70 following upbeat quarterly results
• Shares of Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RETA got a boost, shooting 53% to $165.99 after Biogen agreed to acquire the company.
• Roku, Inc. ROKU shares were also up, gaining 25% to $85.37 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and issued strong third-quarter guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. TNXP shares dropped 38% to $1.0985. Tonix Pharmaceuticals priced public offering of 7 million common shares at $1 per share.
• Shares of Sleep Number Corporation SNBR were down 30% to $26.88 after the company reported mixed second-quarter results.
• Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc. EOSE was down, falling 17% to $2.1950. Eos Energy Enterprises said it expects second-quarter revenue of $0.2 million.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $79.70 while gold traded up 0.7% at $1,958.40.

Silver traded up 0.2% to $24.425 on Friday while copper rose 0.9% to $3.9105.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.32%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.13% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index slipped 0.20% The German DAX gained 0.17% French CAC 40 rose 0.01% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.39%.

The services confidence indicator in the Eurozone fell for a third straight month to a reading of 5.7 in July, while industry confidence indicator fell for a sixth consecutive month to -9.4 in July. The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone increased by 1 point to -15.1 in July, while economic sentiment indicator fell for a third month in a row to 94.5.

The Germany’s economy stalled in the second quarter, compared to market expectations for a 0.1% growth, while Spanish economy expanded by 0.4% on the quarter in the second quarter. The consumer price inflation in France slowed to 4.3% year-over-year in July from 4.5% in the prior month, while producer prices fell 1.1% month-over-month in June.

Industrial sales in Italy increased by 1.5% from the prior month in May, the most since Aug. 2022, while industrial producer prices declined by 5.5% year-over-year in June.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.40%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.84% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 1.41%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.2%.

The Bank of Japan maintained its key short-term interest rate at -0.1%. Australia's final demand producer price index rose by 0.5% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter, while retail sales fell by 0.8% month-over-month in June.

Economics

• Personal income in the U.S. increased by 0.3% from the prior month in June, while personal spending rose by 0.5%.
• Compensation costs for civilian workers rose by 1.0% during the second quarter, versus a 1.2% growth in the prior three-month period.
• The PCE price index rose 0.2% month-over-month in June versus a 0.1% increase in May. Core PCE prices rose by 0.2% month-over-month in June easing from a 0.3% increase in the earlier month. The annual rate, which is the Fed’s preferred gauge for inflation, increased by 4.1%.
• The University of Michigan consumer sentiment was revised lower to 71.6 in July versus a preliminary reading of 72.6.

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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 107,505,310 cases with around 1,169,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,995,430 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 692,178,100 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,903,050 deaths.