Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Surges 250 Points; KLX Energy Services Shares Slide

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.75% to 33,983.24 while the NASDAQ rose 1.02% to 13,999.22. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.85% to 4,159.64.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 31,422,220 cases with around 564,400 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 14,074,560 cases and 173,120 deaths, while Brazil reported over 13,673,500 COVID-19 cases with 361,880 deaths. In total, there were at least 138,347,820 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 2,974,830 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares rose 1.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ardelyx, Inc. ARDX, up 12%, and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. BCRX, up 13%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 1%.

Top Headline

Bank of America Corporation BAC reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Bank of America reported quarterly earnings of $0.86 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.66 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $22.93 billion, versus expectations of $22.13 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Wilhelmina International, Inc. WHLM shares shot up 31% to $10.88 after gaining 14% on Wednesday. The company's 13D filing recently showed that Modell's Sporting Goods had reported a stake of 18.4% in the company.

Shares of Citi Trends, Inc. CTRN got a boost, shooting 9% to $100.89. Craig-Hallum maintained Citi Trends with a Buy and raised the price target from $125 to $142.

Dell Technologies Inc. DELL shares were also up, gaining 9% to $100.63 after the company announced planned spin-off of 81% equity interest in VMware, Inc.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. KLXE shares tumbled 32% to $9.82 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 earnings.

Shares of AmpliTech Group, Inc. AMPG were down 20% to $6.74 after the company reported pricing of $23 million registered direct offering of 2.715 million shares priced at-the-market.

GEE Group, Inc. JOB was down, falling 33% to $0.5715 after the company reported pricing of $50 million underwritten public offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $62.97, while gold traded up 1.8% to $1,767.90.

Silver traded up 1.9% Thursday to $26.02 while copper rose 2% to $4.2120.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.55%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.15% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.37%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.47% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% and Italy’s FTSE MIB slipped 0.01%.

The annual inflation rate in Italy rose to 0.8% in March from 0.6% in the earlier month, while French annual inflation rate increased to 1.1% in March from 0.6% in February. Consumer prices in Germany rose 1.7% year-over-year in March. Spain's trade deficit shrank sharply to EUR 1.08 billion in February.

Economics

US initial jobless claims dropped by 193,000 to 576,000 in the week ending April 10.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index surged to 50.2 in April from a revised reading of 44.5 in March.

US retail sales surged 9.8% in March following a revised 2.7% decline in the earlier month .

The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index climbed to 26.3 in April from 17.4 in March.

Industrial production rose 1.4% in March following a 2.6% drop in February.

US business inventories rose 0.5% from a month ago in February.

The NAHB housing market index rose 1 point to 83 in April.

US natural-gas supplies rose 61 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester is set to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here