Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Rises 1%; New Fortress Energy Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.29% to 34,860.01 while the NASDAQ rose 1.47% to 14,714.54. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.22% to 4,416.63.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 44,059,040 cases with around 707,780 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,894,310 cases and 449,850 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,516,960 COVID-19 cases with 599,350 deaths. In total, there were at least 236,571,580 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,829,760 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares gained by 1.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Burcon NutraScience Corporation BRCN, up 17% and PureCycle Technologies, Inc. PCT up 10%.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

Conagra Brands, Inc. CAG reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Conagra Brands reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.50 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.49 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $2.65 billion versus expectations of $2.54 billion.

Conagra Brands reaffirmed FY22 earnings guidance of $2.50 per share.

 

Equities Trading UP

Cyren Ltd. CYRN shares shot up 12% to $0.5470 after the company announced Nasdaq granted its request for a 180-day extension to regain compliance with Nasdaq's minimum bid price requirement.

Shares of Merus N.V. MRUS got a boost, shooting 38% to $27.58 as the company presented data on MCLA-158 and preclinical data on zenocutuzumab (Zeno) at the AACR-NCI-EORTC Virtual International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.

New Fortress Energy Inc. NFE shares were also up, gaining 27% to $33.54 after the company issued gas supply and economic guidance.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Osmotica Pharmaceuticals plc OSMT shares tumbled 39% to $1.87 as the company priced its secondary public offering of 14 million shares and warrants to purchase up to 14 million shares at $2.5/piece.

Shares of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ORIC were down 31% to $13.08 after the company presented initial clinical data from Phase 1b trial of ORIC-101 in combination with enzalutamide and preclinical data on ORIC-114 at AACR-NCI-EORTC.

Prelude Therapeutics Incorporated PRLD was down, falling 34% to $19.04. Prelude Therapeutics announced presentation of data from multiple programs at AACR-NCI-EORTC Virtual International Conference.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $78.20, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,758.30.

Silver traded up 0.5% Thursday to $22.64 while copper rose 2.6% to $4.2555.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index jumped 2.14% and the German DAX 30 climbed 1.85%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 1.17%, French CAC 40 jumped 1.65% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 1.51%.

Retail sales in Italy rose 0.4% over a month during August, while industrial production in Germany dropped 4% in August. French current account deficit shrank to EUR 1.3 billion in August from a revised gap of EUR 3.4 billion a month ago, while trade deficit narrowed to EUR 6.67 billion from a revised EUR 7.08 billion. The Halifax House Price Index in the UK surged 7.4% year-over-year in September.

Economics

US-based employers reported 17,895 job cuts during the month of September, according to the Challenger job-cut report.

US initial jobless claims dropped to 326,000 in the week ending October 2nd, compared to a seven-week high level of 364,000 in the prior period.

US natural-gas supplies climbed 118 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Data on consumer credit for August will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here