Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Rises 50 Points; Digital World Acquisition Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.26% to 35,516.99 while the NASDAQ rose 0.35% to 15,173. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.03% to 4,537.56.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 46,092,360 cases with around 751,810 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,127,450 cases and 452,840 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,680,480 COVID-19 cases with 604,300 deaths. In total, there were at least 242,917,350 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,939,860 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained by 1.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Waitr Holdings Inc. WTRH, up 12% and Nautilus, Inc. NLS up 12%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 2.2%.

Top Headline

AT&T Inc. T reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

AT&T reported quarterly earnings of $0.87 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.78 per share. The company reported quarterly revenue of $39.92 billion, versus analysts’ estimates of $39.14 billion.

AT&T said it expects full-year adjusted EPS to be at the high end of the low-to mid-single digit growth range.

Equities Trading UP

Digital World Acquisition Corp. DWAC shares shot up 352% to $45.06 following an announcement the company will merge with Trump Media & Technology Group.

Shares of Portillo's Inc. PTLO got a boost, shooting 47% to $29.48 after the company priced its IPO at $20 per share.

TriState Capital Holdings, Inc. TSC shares were also up, gaining 35% to $30.79 after Raymond James Financial announced it will acquire the company. TriState Capital announced better-than-expected Q3 earnings.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Kaiser Aluminum Corporation KALU shares tumbled 11% to $101.49 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 results.

Shares of Covenant Logistics Group, Inc. CVLG were down 21% to $27.11 after the company reported results for the third quarter.

Shapeways Holdings, Inc. SHPW was down, falling 15% to $9.18. Shapeways Holdings S-1 showed registration for 35.5 million share and 4 million warrants to buy shares shelf offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.7% to $81.98, while gold traded down 0.3% to $1,779.30.

Silver traded down 1.5% Thursday to $24.075 while copper fell 4% to $4.5445.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.08%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.82% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.32%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.45%, French CAC 40 declined 0.29% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dropped 0.21%.

Italy’s industrial sales increased 0.8% in August. The manufacturing climate indicator for France came in unchanged at 107 in October. Public sector net borrowing in the UK came in at £21.8 billion for September.

Economics

US initial jobless claims declined to 290,000 in the week ending October 16th, notching the lowest level since March 2020.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index dropped to 23.8 in October from 30.7 in September.

Existing home sales surged 7% to an annual rate of 6.29 million units in September.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.2% for September.

US natural gas supplies jumped 92 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here