Gold Down 2.5%; Northrop Grumman Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining over 350 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.91% to 40,215.50 while the NASDAQ rose 0.59% to 17,444.67. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.57% to 5,458.21.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Industrials shares jumped by 1.8% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

Northrop Grumman Corp NOC reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and raised its guidance.

Northrop Grumman reported second-quarter fiscal 2024 sales growth of 7% year-over-year to $10.218 billion, beating the consensus of $10.018 billion. Second-quarter EPS was $6.36 compared to $5.34 a year ago, beating the consensus of $5.92.

For fiscal 2024, Northrop Grumman now expects sales of $41 billion-$41.4 billion (from $40.8 billion – $41.2 billion) versus the consensus of $41.139 billion.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Goosehead Insurance, Inc GSHD shares shot up 29% to $84.82 following upbeat second-quarter results.
• Shares of Molina Healthcare, Inc. MOH got a boost, surging 15% to $331.04 following better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
• Viking Therapeutics, Inc. VKTX shares were also up, gaining 30% to $65.44 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter EPS results. The company also announced the advancement of VK2735 to Phase 3.

Equities Trading DOWN

• 2U, Inc. TWOU shares dropped 62% to $1.5799 after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to facilitate a Restructuring Support Agreement.
• Shares of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation EW were down 29% to $61.41 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter sales results and issued third-quarter guidance below estimates. Also, the company acquired JenaValve and Endotronix.
• MaxLinear, Inc. MXL was down, falling 31% to $15.41 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter financial results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $78.32 while gold traded down 2.5% at $2,354.80.

Silver traded down 4.6% to $27.955 on Thursday, while copper rose 0.3% to $4.1215.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.72%, Germany's DAX fell 0.48% and France's CAC 40 fell 1.15%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.58%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.40%.

Bank lending to households in the Eurozone rose by 0.3% year-over-year to €6.879 trillion in June. The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany fell for a third straight month to a reading of 87 in July from 88.6 in June. The manufacturing climate indicator in France declined to 95.5 in July from 98.9 in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 3.28%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 1.77%, China's Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.52% and India's S&P BSE Sensex declining 0.14%.

Imports to Hong Kong climbed 9% year-over-year to $429.2 billion, while exports from Hong Kong gained 10.7% to $373.5 billion in June. The People's Bank of China cut its one-year policy loan rate.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 10,000 to 235,000 in the week ending July 20, compared to market estimates of 238,000.
• U.S. durable goods orders fell by 6.6% month-over-month in June.
• The US economy grew by an annualized 2.8% in the second quarter, up from 1.4% in the prior quarter, and higher than expectations of 2%.
• The EIA said U.S. natural-gas stocks increased 22 billion cubic feet during the week ended July 19, higher than market estimates of a 15 billion cubic feet gain.

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