Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.15 percent to 24,805.86 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.26 percent to 7,417.56. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.25 percent to 2,729.24.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
On Thursday, the energy shares rose 1.34 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Seadrill Limited SDRL 36.28%, up 46 percent, and Sanchez Energy Corporation SN 11.46% up 8 percent.
In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell 0.34 percent.
Top Headline
Walmart Inc WMT 1.63% reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.
Walmart said it earned $1.14 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $120.7 billion versus Wall Street's estimate of $1.13 per share on revenue of $120.51 billion.
Walmart U.S. comp sales rose 2.1 percent, comp traffic rose 0.8 percent. Comp sales at Sam's Club rose 3.8 percent on a traffic growth of 5.6 percent. Online sales also grew 33 percent in the quarter which marks a reversal from the prior quarter's disappointing performance in the prior quarter.
Equities Trading UP
Carver Bancorp, Inc. CARV 80% shares shot up 88 percent to $6.88.
Shares of Loxo Oncology, Inc. LOXO 18.28% got a boost, shooting up 21 percent to $168.56. The biopharmaceutical company that focuses on medicines for patients with genetically defined cancers said its oral presentation of LOXO-292 was selected for the "Best of ASCO" program.
Baozun Inc. BZUN 17.58% shares were also up, gaining 17 percent to $52.85 after reporting Q1 results.
Equities Trading DOWN
Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. JNCE 32.68% shares dropped 32 percent to $12.02. Abstract of the Phase 1/2 ICONIC trial that evaluated JTX-2011 monotherapy as well as in combination with nivolumab showed that the company has met its target enrolment in its combination cohorts across four solid tumor types, namely gastric cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, head and neck squamous cell cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.
Shares of J C Penney Company Inc JCP 10.91% were down 9 percent to $2.79 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results and lowered its FY2018 guidance.
Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNDX 21.92% was down, falling around 21 percent to $8.76 after the company issued updated results from Phase 2 ENCORE trial of entinostat in combo with KEYTRUDA.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.45 percent to $71.81 while gold traded down 0.22 percent to $1,288.60.
Silver traded up 0.67 percent Thursday to $16.48, while copper rose 0.65 to $3.0905.
Eurozone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.49 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.83 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.11 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.83 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.67 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.60 percent.
Economics
Initial jobless claims increased 11,000 to 222,000 in the latest week. Economists were projecting claims to total 215,000 last week.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose to 34.4 for May, compared to 23.3 in April. Economists expected a reading of 21.9.
The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 percent for April.
Domestic supplies of natural gas increased 106 billion cubic feet for the week ended May 11, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a gain of 104 billion cubic feet.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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