Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Rise; Dollar General Beats Q3 Expectations
|Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.14 percent to 24,174.16 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.15 percent to 6,786.63. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.04 percent to 2,630.40.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Thursday morning, the industrial sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Envirostar Inc EVI 5.95% and NCI Building Systems Inc NCS 8.13%.
In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 0.34 percent.
Top Headline
Dollar General Corp. DG 2.98% reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.
Dollar General posted quarterly earnings of $0.98 per share on revenue of $5.90 billion. However, analysts expected earnings of $0.94 per share on revenue of $5.80 billion.
Dollar General narrowed its FY 2017 earnings guidance from $4.35-$4.50 per share, to $4.37-$4.47 per share.
Equities Trading UP
SAGE Therapeutics Inc SAGE 71.38% shares shot up 66 percent to $152.72 after the company disclosed that Phase 2 trial of SAGE-217 met its primary endpoint.
Shares of Entellus Medical Inc ENTL 48.75% got a boost, shooting up 49 percent to $23.84. Stryker Corporation SYK 0.28% announced plans to acquire Entellus Medical for $24 per share in cash.
Digital Power Corporation DPW 40.88% shares were also up, gaining 51 percent to $4.02 after the firm raised 2018 revenue guidance 50 percent from $25 million to between $36 million and $38 million. The change is justified by a swell in orders at Digital Power’s defense and commercial units, including a major Microphase Corporation order from the U.S. Air Force.
Equities Trading DOWN
LendingClub Corp LC 13.65% shares dropped 16 percent to $3.59 following weak Q4 and FY18 guidance.
Shares of Duluth Holdings Inc DLTH 16.34% were down 16 percent to $16.15 after the company posted downbeat Q3 results.
Argan, Inc. AGX 16.94% was down, falling around 16 percent to $48.20 following Q3 results.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.32 percent to $56.14 while gold traded down 0.79 percent to $1,256.10.
Silver traded down 0.88 percent Thursday to $15.815, while copper rose 0.46 percent to $2.975.
Eurozone
European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.11 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.12 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.18 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.06 percent, and the French CAC 40 dipped 0.15 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.09 percent.
Economics
Initial jobless claims dropped 2,000 to 236,000 in the latest week. Economists projected claims to total 238,000 last week.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Data on consumer credit for November will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET,
Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
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