Nasdaq Surges 1%; Hershey Posts Downbeat Q3 Results

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

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.06% to 43,757.89 while the NASDAQ rose 1.06% to 19,184.31. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.52% to 5,959.89.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares surged by 1.6% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, financials shares fell by 0.9%.

Top Headline

The Hershey Company HSY posted weaker-than-expected results for the third quarter on Thursday.

Hershey posted adjusted EPS of $2.34, missing market estimates of $2.56. The company's quarterly sales came in at $2.987 billion versus expectations of $3.077 billion.

Hershey slashed its FY24 adjusted earnings per share view to $9.00 – $9.10 versus $9.40 estimate (from $9.49 – $9.59). The company sees flat net sales in FY24, compared with the prior view of 2% growth.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Webuy Global Ltd WBUY shares shot up 337% to $0.4984.
• Shares of Nature’s Miracle Holding Inc. NMHI got a boost, surging 213% to $0.3036. Nature’s Miracle Holding launched EV business in the U.S. and South America.
• AtlasClear Holdings, Inc.  ATCH shares were also up, gaining 57% to $0.2830.

Equities Trading DOWN

• FOXO Technologies Inc. FOXO shares dropped 46% to $0.42.
• Shares of Digital Turbine, Inc. APPS were down 45% to $1.78 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter financial results.
• Exela Technologies, Inc. XELA was down, falling 39% to $1.2099. On Nov. 6, 2024, the Nasdaq Stock Market notified Exela Technologies that the Nasdaq Hearings Panel has determined to delist the company’s common stock and that trading of the company’s securities will be suspended at the open of trading on Nov. 8.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $71.45 while gold traded up 0.4% at $2,685.80.

Silver traded up 0.6% to $31.505 on Thursday, while copper rose 3.7% to $4.4015.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.8%, Germany's DAX gained 1.5% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.6%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.8%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.1%.

The Bank of England cut its Bank Rate by 25bps to 4.75% at its recent meeting. Retail sales in the Eurozone rose 0.5% month-over-month in September versus a revised 1.1% gain in August. The HCOB Eurozone construction PMI climbed to 43.0 in October from 42.1 in the previous month.

The S&P Global France construction PMI climbed to 42.2 in October from 37.9 in the prior month, while German construction PMI declined to 40.2 in October from 41.7 in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.25%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 2.02%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 2.57% and India's BSE Sensex falling 1.04%.

China’s trade surplus widened to $95.27 billion in October from $56.13 billion in the year-ago period. Foreign exchange reserves in Singapore increased to SGD 507.6 billion in October from SGD 499.7 billion in the prior month.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 3,000 from the previous week to 221,000 in the final week of October, in-line with market expectations.
• U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased by 2.2% in the third quarter compared to a revised 2.1% gain in the prior three-month period.
• Unit labor costs in the nonfarm business sector rose an annualized 1.9% during the third quarter compared to a revised 2.4% increase in the earlier period.

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