Mid-Day Market Update: ZK International Rises Following Blockchain Investment Announcement; Calumet Specialty Products Shares Drop

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.13 percent to 24,806.61 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.14 percent to 6,949.32. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.07 percent to 2,684.38.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the basic materials sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Intrepid Potash, Inc. IPI and Century Aluminum Co CENX.

In trading on Thursday, industrial shares fell 0.044 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included DryShips Inc. DRYS, down 3 percent, and Northern Technologies International Corp NTIC down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Live Ventures Inc LIVE shares rise over 82 percent after reporting a 92 percent increase in revenue for FY 2017 on Wednesday.

Live Ventures Inc LIVE reported FY17 sales of $152 million, up from $79 million in the prior year.

Equities Trading UP

Live Ventures Inc LIVE shares shot up 71 percent to $22.55 after reporting a 92 percent increase in revenue for FY 2017 on Wednesday.

Shares of ZK International Group Co Ltd ZKIN got a boost, shooting up 36 percent to $12.39 after the company reported initial investment from Blockchain.

LiNiu Technology Group LINU shares were also up, gaining 92 percent to $2.55 after the company reported 1H'17 results. The company posted net loss of $5.7 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pareteum Corp TEUM shares dropped 26 percent to $1.86 after declining 10.71 percent on Wednesday.

Shares of Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P CLMT were down 10 percent to $8.00. Calumet Specialty Products Partners reported Q3 loss of $0.30 per share on revenue of $1.09 billion.

Sigma Labs Inc SGLB was down, falling around 22 percent to $2.27.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.08 percent to $59.59 while gold traded up 0.33 percent to $1,295.70.

Silver traded up 0.71 percent Thursday to $16.875, while copper rose 0.85 percent to $3.312.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.26 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.71 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.36 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.69 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.55 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.03 percent.

Economics

The U.S. goods trade deficit increased 2.3 percent to $69.7 billion in November. Economists were expecting a $68.7 billion. Exports increased 3 percent, while imports gained 2.7 percent last month. Advance wholesale inventories climbed 0.7 percent.

Initial jobless claims came in unchanged at 245,000 in the latest week. However, economists projected claims to reach 239,000 last week.

Domestic crude supply dropped 4.61 million barrels for the week ended December 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Analysts expected a fall of 3.97 million barrels. Gasoline stocks rose 591.000 barrels, while distillate products gained 1.09 million barrels on the week.

Data on farm prices for November will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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