Nasdaq Edges Lower; American Airlines Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite turning lower on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.25% to 37,900.45 while the NASDAQ fell 0.13% to 15,462.53. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.19% to 4,877.88.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

 

Energy shares rose by 1.7% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 1.5%.

 

Top Headline

 

American Airlines Group Inc AAL reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.

American Airlines reported a 75% drop in adjusted earnings to 29 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2023 but still came in well above the consensus estimate of 10 cents per share. Total revenue decreased 1% to $13.06 billion, just beating estimates of $13.02 billion.

American Airlines expects its full-year 2024 adjusted earnings per diluted share of $2.25-$3.25 versus the consensus of $2.25.

 

Equities Trading UP

 

Vera Therapeutics, Inc. VERA shares shot up 53% to $25.97 after the company announced 72-week data from the OLE period of its Phase 2b ORIGIN clinical trial. Also, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on the stock with an Outperform rating and announced a $26 price target.

Shares of Processa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PCSA got a boost, surging 88% to $3.8520 after the company announced the completion of the safety tolerability evaluation in its Phase 1b trial of Next Generation Capecitabine.

American Superconductor Corporation AMSC shares were also up, gaining 31% to $12.75 after the company reported better-than-expected third-quarter financial results and issued fourth-quarter revenue guidance above estimates.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

 

RedHill Biopharma Ltd. RDHL shares dropped 46% to $0.5864 after the company announced an $8 million registered direct offering.

Shares of MarineMax, Inc. HZO were down 19% to $26.81 after the company reported worse-than-expected first-quarter adjusted EPS results and issued FY24 adjusted EPS guidance below estimates.

Columbia Banking System, Inc. COLB was down, falling 22% to $20.06 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.

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Commodities

 

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.7% to $77.09 while gold traded up 0.1% at $2,018.20.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $22.915 on Thursday while copper fell 0.6% to $3.8635.

 

Euro zone

 

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.30%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.03% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.58% The German DAX rose 0.10% French CAC 40 rose 0.11% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.60%.

The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany declined to 85.2 in January versus a revised reading of 86.3 in the prior month. Producer prices in Spain fell by 6.3% year-over-year in December, while manufacturing climate indicator in France came in unchanged at 99 for January.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

 

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.03%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 1.96% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 3.03%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.51%.

Imports to Hong Kong jumped by 11.6% year-over-year to $446.3 billion in December, while exports from Hong Kong rose 11% year-over-year to $386.4 billion.

 

Economics

 

The US economy grew an annualized 3.3% in the fourth quarter, versus market estimates of a 2% rise, and compared to a 4.9% rate in the prior quarter.

U.S. initial jobless claims increased by 25,000 to 214,000 in the week ending Jan. 20.

The US trade deficit in goods narrowed to $88.5 billion in December versus a revised $89.3 billion in the prior month.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index declined to -0.15 in December versus a revised 0.01 in the previous month.

Wholesale inventories in the U.S. increased by 0.4% month-over-month in December.

New orders for manufactured durable goods in the U.S. came in unchanged for December.

U.S. natural-gas supplies fell 326 billion cubic during the week ended Jan. 19, 2024, the EIA said.

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