Crude Oil Moves Higher; Lockheed Martin Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling around 2% on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.02% to 52,847.55 while the NASDAQ dipped 2.01% to 26,167.34. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.04% to 7,676.74.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares jumped by 2.4% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, information technology stocks fell by 2.5%.

Top Headline

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) reported better-than-expected third-quarter financial results and raised its FY26 guidance.

Lockheed Martin reported earnings of $7.97 per share, beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $7.42 and rising from $6.95 a year earlier. Revenue increased 11% year over year to $20.711 billion, exceeding the $20.495 billion consensus estimate. Net earnings climbed 14% to $1.845 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

• Healthcare Services Group Inc (NASDAQ:HCSG) shares shot up 9% to $23.68 following strong quarterly earnings.
• Shares of Pharming Group NV – ADR (NASDAQ:PHAR) got a boost, surging 10% to $10.57 after reporting preliminary third-quarter revenues.
• Badger Meter Inc (NYSE:BMI) shares were also up, gaining 11% to $146.69 following upbeat quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

• TTM Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:TTMI) shares dipped 25% to $76.13 following third-quarter results.
• Shares of Carpenter Technology Corp (NYSE:CRS) were down 21% to $289.02 after the company reported mixed first-quarter financial results.
• NVE Corporation (NASDAQ:NVEC) was down, falling 31% to $71.51 after the company reported a year-over-year decrease in second-quarter financial results.

Commodities 

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.8% to $98.85 while gold traded down 2% at $4,067.50.

Silver traded down 4% to $55.405 on Thursday, while copper fell 2.4% to $6.4210.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.7%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.6%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.7%, while France’s CAC 40 dipped 1.2%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipping 2.65%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index falling 3.03%, China’s SSE Composite Index dipping 1.48% and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.62%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 194,000 in the week ended Oct. 17, compared to market estimates of 200,000 and down from a revised reading of 200,000 in the previous week.

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