Nasdaq Surges 1%; Meta Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 1% on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.03% to 40,853.73 while the NASDAQ rose 0.96% to 17,768.43. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.62% to 5,556.62.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 3.4% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

Meta Platforms, Inc. META reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and issued strong third-quarter guidance.

Meta reported second-quarter revenue of $39.07 billion, beating analyst estimates of $38.31 billion. The company reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $5.16 per share, beating analyst estimates of $4.73 per share.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• RedHill Biopharma Ltd. RDHL shares shot up 69% to $0.6499 after the company announced a new publication showed data demonstrating that triple antimicrobial therapy with RHB-104 plus standard of care, targeting Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, is 64% more effective than SoC alone in Crohn’s disease.
• Shares of Bone Biologics Corporation BBLG got a boost, surging 52% to $3.2897 after gaining 23% on Wednesday.
• Immuneering Corporation IMRX shares were also up, gaining 38% to $1.555 after the company announced that IMM-1-104 was granted Fast Track designation from the FDA.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Vintage Wine Estates, Inc. VWE shares dropped 38% to $0.0323 after the company announced a bankruptcy filing and a voluntary delisting and SEC deregistration.
• Shares of ALX Oncology Holdings Inc. ALXO were down 32% to $3.25. The company released topline data from its Phase 2 ASPEN-06 clinical trial.
• Alphatec Holdings, Inc. ATEC was down, falling 31% to $7.01 after the company reported mixed second-quarter financial results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $78.37 while gold traded up 1% at $2,497.80.

Silver traded up 0.7% to $29.125 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.5% to $4.1545.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, Germany's DAX fell 1.1% and France's CAC 40 fell 1.3%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.7%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.2%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 dipping 2.49%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.23% and S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.15%.

Economics

• The ISM manufacturing PMI declined to 46.6 in July versus 48.5 in the prior month, below market estimates of 48.8.
• Construction spending declined by 0.3% month-over-month to an annual rate of $2,148 billion in June.
• U.S. initial jobless claims by 14,000 to 249,000 in the week ending July 27th, beating market estimates of 236,000.
• Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased by 2.3% in the second quarter, compared to a revised 0.4% rise in the prior period.

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