Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 2%; Progenics Pharmaceuticals Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.54 percent to 26,139.62 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.90 percent to 8,025.78. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.52 percent to 2,903.97.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the information technology shares rose 1.45 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Impinj, Inc. PI 38.13% up 40 percent, and Everi Holdings Inc. EVRI 13.2% up 13 percent.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 0.63 percent.

Top Headline

Kroger Co KR 10.32% reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Kroger posted quarterly earnings of $0.41 per share on revenue of $27.87 billion. However, analysts expected earnings of $0.38 per share on sales of $27.95 billion. Its same-store sales, excluding fuel, increased 1.6 percent for the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Impinj, Inc. PI 38.13% shares shot up 42 percent to $26.68 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter and issued strong Q3 guidance.

Shares of Pinduoduo Inc. PDD 17.1% got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $26.94 after analysts at Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and $31.90 price target.

GNC Holdings, Inc. GNC 26.99% shares were also up, gaining 29 percent to $3.73 following news that the company received CFIUS clearance of its previously announced investment from Harbin Pharma.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pivotal Software, Inc. PVTL 21.05% shares dropped 21 percent to $22.62. Pivotal Software reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter on Wednesday.

Shares of Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PGNX 15.41% were down 16 percent to $6.11 after the company released top-line data from its Phase 3 trial of 1404, a prostate-specific membrane antigen-targeted small molecule SPECT/CT imaging agent designed to visualize prostate cancer. The study showed that 1404 detected clinically meaningful prostate cancer with specificity ranging among the three readers from 71-75 percent. Yet the co-primary endpoint of sensitivity was not met and ranged among the three readers from 47-51 percent, while trial protocol mandated that the lower limit of the two-sided 95-percent confidence interval for both specificity and sensitivity exceed 60 percent.

Fred's, Inc. FRED 18.42% was down, falling around 17 percent to $2.20. Fred's reported a Q2 loss of $0.62 per share on sales of $419.658 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.43 percent to $68.66 while gold traded down 0.26 percent to $1,207.70.

Silver traded down 0.27 percent Thursday to $14.255, while copper rose 0.64 to $2.693.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.15 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.24 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.56 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.19 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.08 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.43 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 1,000 to 204,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 210,000 reading.

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.2 percent for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent gain.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The U.S. Treasury report for August is schedule for release at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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