Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Down; AT&T Earnings Beat Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.26% to 26,936.51 while the NASDAQ fell 0.11% to 10,692.02. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.04% to 3,274.73.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 3,971,340 cases with around 143,190 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,227,510 COVID-19 cases with 82,770 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 1,238,790 confirmed cases and 29,860 deaths. In total, there were at least 15,255,090 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 624,130 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares rose 0.5% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc. CBAY, up 31%, and Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMPE, up 10%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

AT&T Inc. T reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed views.

AT&T posted quarterly earnings of $0.83 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.79 per share. The company reported sales of $40.95 billion, missing expectations of $41.02 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. MIST shares shot up 141% to $8.06 after the company reported its NODE-301 and NODE-301B studies can be used as 2 efficacy studies that support future new drug application submissions.

Shares of Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. HLX got a boost, shooting 32% to $5.03 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results. Piper Sandler also upgraded the stock from Neutral to Overweight and raised the price target from $3.50 to $6 per share.

Brightcove Inc. BCOV shares were also up, gaining 32% to $10.68 after the company reported stronger-than-expected Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

360 Finance, Inc. QFIN shares tumbled 15% to $14.31.

Shares of Midatech Pharma plc MTP were down 14% to $2.5388 after the company said it has terminated the formal sale process initiated in late April after it failed to receive any proposals from third parties.

LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. LX was down, falling 13% to $9.30.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $41.65, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,874.40.

Silver traded down 1.3% Thursday to $22.85, while copper rose 0.2% to $2.93.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.5%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.3%, French CAC 40 gained 0.2% and UK shares rose 0.4%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose 1.42 million in the week ended July 18, versus analysts’ expectations of 1.30 million.

The index of leading economic indicators increased 2% for June.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Kansas City manufacturing index for July is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET. The index is projected to rise to 5 in July from a reading of 1 in June.

The Treasury is set to auction 20-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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