Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Up 1.5%; G-III Apparel Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.71% to 26,806.93 while the NASDAQ rose 1.74% to 8,115.76. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.42% to 2,979.51.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 2.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Grupo Supervielle SA -ADR SUPV, up 9%, and Jiayin Group Inc - ADR JFIN, up 12%.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 1.2%.

Top Headline

Signet Jewelers Ltd. SIG reported better-than-expected Q2 results.

Signet Jewelers reported second-quarter earnings of 51 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 24 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $1.364 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.34 billion.

Signet Jewelers sees fiscal year 2020 adjusted EPS $2.91-$3.23 versus the $2.91 estimate and sales adjusted from $6 billion-$6.03 billion versus the $6 billion estimate.

Equities Trading UP

Castor Maritime CTRM shares shot up 20% to $3.75 after the company announced Q3 results.

Shares of Edesa Biotech Inc EDSA got a boost, shooting up 32% to $5.44 after the company disclosed that it has received approval to initiate clinical study in patients with hemorrhoids.

G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. GIII shares were also up, gaining 26% to $23.67 after the company reported upbeat Q2 earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

Mallinckrodt PLC MNK shares tumbled 42% to $1.51 on a report that the company hired the restructuring firm Latham & Watkins in the wake of multiple looming lawsuits. BMO Capital also downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform.

Shares of Meredith Corporation MDP were down 26% to $32.31 following Q4 results. Meredith expects Q1 adjusted EPS of $0.88-$0.93 and FY20 adjusted EPS of $5.75-$6.20.

Rev Group Inc REVG was down, falling 26% to $9.02 after the company reported Q3 results and lowered FY19 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $57.10, while gold traded down 2.3% to $1,524.30.

Silver traded down 3.5% Thursday to $18.855, while copper rose 2% to $2.6455.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.65%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.42%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.81%. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.9% and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.16% while UK shares fell 0.62%.

Economics

U.S. private sector added 195,000 jobs for August, Automatic Data Processing, Inc. reported. However, economists were expecting a gain of 148,000 jobs.

U.S. jobless claims increased 1,000 to 217,000 for the latest week. However, analysts were projecting a reading of 215,000.

U.S. nonfarm productivity rose by an annualized 2.3% for the second quarter, matching a preliminary estimate and above economists’ expectations for a 2.2% increase. Unit labor costs increased by an annualized 2.6 percent in the second quarter.

The IHS Markit services PMI declined to 50.7 in August, versus 53 in the prior month, and compared to a preliminary reading of 50.9. However, analysts projected a reading of 51.

U.S. factory orders rose 1.4% for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 1% increase.

The ISM's non-manufacturing index increased to 56.4 in August, compared to 53.7 in the prior month. However, analysts expected a reading of 54.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 84 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 30, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a gain of 75 billion cubic feet.

U.S. crude supplies fell 4.8 million barrels for the week ended August 30, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a drop of 3 million barrels. Gasoline supplies fell 2.4 million barrels, while distillate supplies dropped 2.5 million barrels.

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