Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Fred's Drops After Q2 Results; Impinj Shares Surge

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.48 percent to 26,124.02 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.72 percent to 8,011.06. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.47 percent to 2,902.41.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the information technology shares rose 1.12 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Impinj, Inc. PI up 41 percent, and Everi Holdings Inc. EVRI up 13 percent.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 0.60 percent.

Top Headline

Kroger Co KR 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 shares shot up 37 percent to $25.72 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter and issued strong Q3 guidance.

Shares of NIO LIMITED NIO got a boost, shooting up 43 percent to $9.47 after climbing 5.43 percent on Wednesday. NIO priced its IPO at $6.26 per ADS.

GNC Holdings, Inc. GNC shares were also up, gaining 27 percent to $3.67 following news that the company received CFIUS clearance of its previously announced investment from Harbin Pharma.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pivotal Software, Inc. PVTL shares dropped 22 percent to $22.55. Pivotal Software reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter on Wednesday.

Shares of WageWorks, Inc. WAGE were down 18 percent to $40.10 after the company announced adjustments to FY16 financial statements expected to decrease revenue and net income. JMP Securities analysts downgraded the stock, while analysts at Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target.

Fred's, Inc. FRED was down, falling around 20 percent to $2.13. 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 0.25 percent to $1,207.90.

Silver traded down 0.37 percent Thursday to $14.24, while copper rose 0.13 to $2.6795.

Eurozone

European shares closed 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.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 69 billion cubic feet for the week ended September 7, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a gain of 70 billion cubic feet.