Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps 100 Points; Fastly Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.31% to 34,337.14 while the NASDAQ fell 0.61% to 13,498.90. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.07% to 4,170.56.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,558,060 cases with around 579,280 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 21,077,410 cases and 230,160 deaths, while Brazil reported over 14,930,180 COVID-19 cases with 414,390 deaths. In total, there were at least 155,261,330 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,243,960 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares rose 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ambev S.A. ABEV, up 11%, and Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. NUS, up 9%.

In trading on Thursday, health care shares fell 0.6%.

Top Headline

Kellogg Company K reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter and raised its FY21 guidance.

Kellogg reported quarterly earnings of $1.11 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.96 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $3.58 billion, versus expectations of $3.38 billion.

Kellogg raised its FY21 organic net sales guidance from down 1% to flat on year-over-year basis. The company also boosted adjusted EPS growth guidance from 1% year over year to up 1-2% year over year.

 

Equities Trading UP

SemiLEDs Corporation LEDS shares shot up 119% to $12.03 on above-average volume.

Shares of Stealth BioTherapeutics Corp MITO got a boost, shooting 33% to $1.5950. Stealth BioTherapeutics presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting with positive data from a post hoc analysis of the Phase 1 ReCLAIM study evaluating elamipretide in patients with non-central geographic atrophy and high risk drusen associated with dry age-related macular degeneration.

Avid Technology, Inc. AVID shares were also up, gaining 21% to $26.28 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results and raised FY21 guidance.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

James River Group Holdings, Ltd. JRVR shares tumbled 30% to $32.34 after the company swung to a loss in the first quarter. The company also priced its 5.65 million share common stock offering at $31 per share.

Shares of Yellow Corporation YELL were down 33% to $6.44 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS results.

Fastly, Inc. FSLY was down, falling 27% to $42.53 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 sales. The company also announced the CFO is stepping down.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $64.89, while gold traded up 1.7% to $1,815.20.

Silver traded up 3.6% Thursday to $27.475 while copper rose 1.8% to $4.6045.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.12%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.16% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.17%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.52%, French CAC 40 rose 0.28% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.13%.

The IHS Markit Eurozone’s construction PMI came in unchanged at 50.1 in April, while French construction PMI rose to 49.8 in April from 49.7 in the earlier month. The IHS Markit/CIPS UK composite PMI increased to 60.7 in April versus a preliminary reading of 60.

German construction PMI dropped to 46.2 in April versus 47.5 in the prior month, while factory orders rose 3.0% in March.

Economics

US initial jobless claims fell by 92,000 to 498,000 in the week ending May 1st.

Nonfarm labor productivity increased by an annualized 5.4% in the first quarter, while unit labor costs dropped an annualized 0.3%.

US natural-gas supplies climbed 60 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan is set to speak at 6:05 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here