Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Steelcase Falls On Downbeat Q1 Results; Edesa Biotech Shares Surge

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.7% to 26,688.36 while the NASDAQ rose 0.58% to 8,033.26. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.68% to 2,946.40.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained 1.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Roan Resources, Inc. ROAN 44.99%, up 47%, and Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. TUSK 9.74%, up 11%.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

Kroger Co KR 1.61% reported in-line earnings for its second quarter, while sales exceeded estimates.

Kroger reported second-quarter earnings of 72 cents per share, which met the analyst consensus estimate. The company reported quarterly sales of $37.251 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $37.21 billion. The company sees FY2019 adjusted EPS between $2.15 and $2.25.

Equities Trading UP

Edesa Biotech, Inc. EDSA 81.55% shares shot up 95% to $8.25 after the company received Food and Drug Administration approval to proceed with its U.S. study of EB01 as a potential treatment for chronic allergic contact dermatitis. Edesa, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, saidthe FDA sent a "safe to proceed" letter that allows the company toproceed with its clinical investigation of EB01, a novel sPLA2 inhibitorEdesa is developing as a potential treatment for chronic allergic contact dermatitis..

Shares of Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. NASDAQGO got a boost, shooting up 36% to $29.85 after pricing 17 million shares of stock at $22 per share.

Personalis, Inc. NASDAQPSNL shares were also up, gaining 66% to $28.23 after pricing 7.92 million shares at $17 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Scholar Rock Holding Corporation SRRK 15.03% shares tumbled 16% to $14.32 after the company priced a 3 million share common stock offering at $15 per share.

Shares of Steelcase Inc. SCS 10.69% were down 11% to $15.88 after reporting downbeat results for its first quarter.

Carnival Corporation CCL 8.33% was down, falling 9% to $48.16. Carnival reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter, but lowered its FY19 earnings forecast.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 5.5% to $56.72, while gold traded up 3.4% to $1,394.40.

Silver traded up 3.3% Thursday to $15.455, while copper rose 1.1% to $2.71.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.36%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.25%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.66%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.38%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.31% while UK shares rose 0.28%.

Economics

Initial jobless claims dropped 6,000 to 216,000 in the week ended June 15. However, economists were expecting a reading of 220,000.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index dropped to a reading of 0.3 in June, versus a reading of 16.6 in the previous month. However, economists projected a reading of 8.

The U.S. current-account deficit declined 9.4% to $130.4 billion in the first quarter, compared to a revised $143.9 billion for the fourth quarter.

The index of leading economic indicators was unchanged for May.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 115 billion cubic feet for the week ended June 14, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a gain of 104 billion cubic feet.

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