Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Morgan Stanley Beats Q4 Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.57% to 29,194.29 while the NASDAQ rose 0.83% to 9,335.62. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.54% to 3,307.12.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 0.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Moneygram International Inc MGI, up 14%, and Limelight Networks, Inc. LLNW, up 9%.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

Morgan Stanley MS reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Morgan Stanley reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.2 per share Wednesday, beating the Street estimate of $0.99. The company reported quarterly sales of $10.857 billion, beating the Street estimate of $9.78 billion.

Goldman Sachs reported fourth-quarter investment banking revenue of $7.6 billion, down 7% year-over-year; global markets revenue that was higher by 2% year-over-year; and flat year-over-year asset management revenue.

Equities Trading UP

Signet Jewelers Limited SIG shares shot up 32% to $28.32 after the company raised Q4 and FY19 EPS guidance above analyst estimates. The company also reported increase in holiday and e-commerce sales.

Shares of The McClatchy Company MNI got a boost, shooting up 454% to $2.43 after the company announced it entered into a standstill agreement with the PBGC.

Cemtrex, Inc. CETX shares were also up, gaining 56% to $2.8408 after the company authorized a buyback of 2 million shares of common stock and series 1 preferred stock over 3 years.

Equities Trading DOWN

Opera Limited OPRA shares tumbled 15% to $7.68 after Hindenburg Research issued a bearish report on Opera and sees 70% downside.

Shares of ReWalk Robotics Ltd. RWLK were down 12% to $2.01.

Air Industries Group AIRI was down, falling 14% to $2.3401. Air Industries announced an agreement with Roth Capital to which company may offer 8.21 million shares.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $57.69, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,555.80.

Silver traded up 0.1% Thursday to $18.00, while copper rose 0.4% to $2.8765.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.2% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.2%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.1% while UK shares fell 0.4%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims dropped 10,000 to 204,000 in the week ending January 11th.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index increased 14.6 points to a reading of 17 in January.

US retail sales rose 0.3% in December, versus a revised 0.3% increase in the prior month.

Import prices rose 0.3% in December, compared to a 0.1% increase in November. Export prices fell 0.2% in December, following a 0.2% rise in the previous month.

U.S. business inventories dropped 0.2% in November, versus a revised 0.1% increase in October.

The NAHB housing market index slipped to 75 in January, versus a reading of 76 in the prior month.

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman is set to speak at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury International Capital report for November is schedule for release at 4:00 p.m. ET.

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