Mid-day market update: KB Home surges following upbeat earnings, Virgin Galactic shares slide

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.41% to 36,437.70 while the NASDAQ fell 0.57% to 15,102.56. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.10% to 4,721.84.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 64,359,400 cases with around 866,890 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 36,317,920 cases and 485,030 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,718,600 COVID-19 cases with 620,410 deaths. In total, there were at least 317,843,630 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,532,990 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Industrials shares rose 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. HA +5.94%, up 5% and Concrete Pumping Holdings, Inc. BBCP +5.62% up 5%.

In trading on Thursday, health care shares fell by 0.9%.

Top Headline

Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL +2.71% reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Delta Air Lines posted quarterly earnings of $0.22 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.13 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $9.47 billion, versus expectations of $9.14 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Takung Art Co., Ltd. TKAT +8% shares shot up 14% to $3.9735. Traders are circulating earlier news that China is looking to separate NFTs from crypto via new blockchain infrastructure.

Shares of BTCS Inc. BTCS +17.39% got a boost, shooting 18% to $7.88. BTCS added Algorand to its blockchain infrastructure operations. The company announced on January 5 its dividend would be payable in Bitcoin.

KB Home KBH +14.42% shares were also up, gaining 13% to $48.03 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings results and issued FY22 housing revenue guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. SPCE -17.38% shares tumbled 15% to $10.52 after the company announced a proposed convertible senior notes offering. Virgin Galactic intends to offer $425 million of convertible senior notes due 2027 in a private offering to institutional investors.

Shares of E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. ETWO -11.34% were down 12% to $8.58. E2open reported an adjusted gross profit of $103.4 million for the third quarter, up from $89.6 million in the year-ago period. Its non-GAAP revenue also climbed to $147.4 million from $129.5 million. E2open raised its FY22 adjusted sales guidance to $474 million to $476 million.

GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd. GHG -8.89% was down, falling 16% to $7.06 after the company posted results for the third quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $82.42, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,817.90.

Silver traded down 0.4% Thursday to $23.12 while copper fell 0.9% to $4.5370.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.15%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.02%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.15%. The German DAX declined 0.15%, French CAC 40 fell 0.69% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.22%.

Italy’s industrial production rose 1.9% from a month ago in November following a revised 0.5% decline in the prior month.

Economics

US initial jobless claims rose by 23 thousand from the previous week to 230 thousand in the recent week.

The Producer Price Index rose 0.2% for December following a revised 1% rise in the previous month.

US natural-gas supplies dropped 179 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.