Mid-Day Market Update: iPass Drops After Q2 Results; Belmond Shares Surge

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.04 percent to 25,573.49 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.27 percent to 7,909.87. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.08 percent to 2,859.86.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the materials shares climbed 0.99 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pan American Silver Corp. PAAS 9.17% up 9 percent, and Aluminum Corporation of China Limited ACH 5.26% up 7 percent.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.36 percent.

Top Headline

Viacom, Inc. VIA 5.52% reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Earnings came in at $1.18 per share, beating market estimates of $1.07 per share. Sales came in at $3.24 billion, beating estimates of $3.26 billion. Its worldwide affiliate revenue declined 3 percent to $1.15 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Belmond Ltd. BEL 37.13% shares shot up 44 percent to $16.025 after the company released mixed earnings report. The company also reported review of strategic alternatives.

Shares of Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CTXR 46.48% got a boost, shooting up 47 percent to $1.67 after the company priced $10 million, 7.84 million share offering at the market, for an effective price of $1.275.

TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. TAT 38.3% shares were also up, gaining 37 percent to $1.4926 after the company announced quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

iPass Inc. IPAS 33.14% shares dropped 32 percent to $0.265 after the company missed Q2 earnings estimates.

Shares of Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMPE 38.87% were down 38 percent to $0.3801 after announcing a common stock offering.

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. ELF 28.39% was down, falling around 28 percent to $10.755 after cutting its FY2018 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.15 percent to $66.84 while gold traded up 0.06 percent to $1,221.70.

Silver traded up 0.15 percent Thursday to $15.455, while copper rose 1.02 to $2.779.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.06 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.12 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.81 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.26 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.03 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.40 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims declined 6,000 to 213,000 for the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 220,000 reading.

The Producer Price Index came in flat for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent rise.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.1 percent for June.

Domestic supplies of natural-gas stockpiles increased 46 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 3, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

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