Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq turns higher; Kraton shares plummet

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.98% to 26280.13 while the NASDAQ rose 0.37% to 10582.30. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.49% to 3,242.49.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 4,427,490 cases with around 150,710 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,552,260 COVID-19 cases with 90,130 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 1,582,020 confirmed cases and 34,950 deaths. In total, there were at least 17,054,810 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 667,700 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained 0.3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included At Home Group Inc. HOME 32.61%, up 32%, and Blink Charging Co. BLNK 27.23%, up 43%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares tumbled by 4.3%.

Top Headline

Procter & Gamble Co PG 2.21% reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Procter & Gamble posted quarterly earnings of $1.16 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.01 per share. The company reported sales of $17.70 billion, surpassing expectations of $16.97 billion.

PG announced it expects all-in sales growth of 1%-3% year-over-year and EPS growth of 3%-7% year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

Taoping Inc. TAOP 2520.77% shares shot up 458% to $11.37 as the company disclosed that it has upgraded its Taoping Smart Cloud Platform to expand its business. On Wednesday, TAOP reported a 1-for-6 reverse stock split, effective July 30.

Shares of Edesa Biotech, Inc. EDSA 78.58% got a boost, shooting 80% to $9.39 after the company filed an IND application for a phase 2/3 Coronavirus study.

At Home Group Inc. HOME 32.61% shares were also up, gaining 32% to $12.42 after reporting preliminary results for the second quarter. The company reported preliminary net sales of roughly $515 million and a comparable store sales increase of around 42%.

Equities Trading DOWN

Genocea Biosciences, Inc. GNCA 30.18% shares tumbled 32% to $3.3950 after the company said initial clinical data on the first five patients from Part B of a Phase 1/2 study that's exploring the combination of GEN-009 and immune checkpoint inhibitor-based regimens in advanced solid tumors showed that three achieved independent RECIST responses starting from the first GEN-009 dose.

Shares of Kraton Corporation KRA 24.31% were down 24% to $13.87 after reporting results for its second quarter. Kraton posted adjusted Q2 earnings of $0.30 per share on revenue of $355.68 million.

Urban Tea, Inc. MYT 26.88% was down, falling 27% to $0.4339 after the company priced its 15 million share offering at $0.40 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.2% to $39.94, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,943.00.

Silver traded down 4% Thursday to $23.365, while copper fell 0.2% to $2.914.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 2.16%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.91%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 3.28%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 dropped 3.45%, French CAC 40 fell 2.13% and UK shares fell 2.31%.

Economics

The US economy shrank by an annualized rate of 32.9% during the second quarter, versus analysts’ expectations of a 34.1% contraction.

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 1.43 million for the week ended July 25, versus analysts’ estimates of 1.45 million.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 26 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 24, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a rise of 23 billion.

Data on money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.