Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Rises Over 1%; Zosano Pharma Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.08 percent to 24,106.04 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.14 percent to 7,028.76. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.05 percent to 2,632.34.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the energy shares gained 2.12 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included C&J Energy Services, Inc. CJ 5.84%, up 9 percent, and Unit Corporation UNT 16.79%, up 10 percent.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell 0.10 percent.

Top Headline

Constellation Brands, Inc. STZ 3.82% reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Constellation Brands reported adjusted earnings of $1.90 per share on revenue of $1.77 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.74 per share on sales of $1.75 billion.

Constellation Brands now expects FY19 adjusted earnings of $9.40-$9.70 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $9.58 per share. The company raised its Class A dividend to $0.74 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Movado Group, Inc. MOV 15.85% shares shot up 16 percent to $38.50 after the company posted upbeat Q4 results and issued a strong FY19 forecast.

Shares of Titan Machinery Inc. TITN 10.99% got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $22.61 after the company posted upbeat quarterly results.

Galectin Therapeutics, Inc. GALT 23.02% shares were also up, gaining 20 percent to $4.54. Galectin Therapeutics posted a FY17 loss of $0.49 per share and disclosed that it continues to remain in ongoing discussions with a number of pharma companies about potential partnerships.

Equities Trading DOWN

Zosano Pharma Corporation ZSAN 44.33% shares dropped 44 percent to $5.12. Zosano Pharma confirmed pricing of 10 million share offering at $5 per share.

Shares of Acxiom Corporation ACXM 24.66% were down 32 percent to $19.05 after reporting change to Facebook relationship. Acxiom disclosed that Facebook relationship change says won't affect FY 2018 guidance.

Pioneer Power Solutions, Inc. PPSI 12.32% was down, falling around 19 percent to $5.25. Pioneer Power Solutions posted Q4 earnings from continuing operations of $(0.51) per share on sales of $23.555 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.76 percent to $64.87 while gold traded down 0.20 percent to $1,327.40.

Silver traded up 0.29 percent Thursday to $16.30, while copper rose 0.93 percent to $3.03.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.87 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.91 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.90 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 1.73 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 1.20 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.657 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims slipped 12,000 to 215,000 in the latest week. Economists were expecting claims to reach 230,000 last week.

U.S. consumer spending rose 0.2 percent for February, while income increased 0.4 percent.

The Chicago PMI declined to a reading of 57.4 in March, versus 61.9 in February.

The final reading of University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index slipped to 101.4 in March from 102.

Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 63 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 23, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a fall of 70 billion cubic feet.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker is set to speak in New York City at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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