Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 1.7%; Groupon Shares Climb On Upbeat Results

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.09 percent to 18,456.01 while the NASDAQ gained 0.27 percent to 5,153.63. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.15 percent to 2,169.92.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed by 1.01 percent.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 0.66 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included SunCoke Energy Inc SXC, down 12 percent, and Pioneer Energy Services Corp PES, down 12 percent.

Top Headline

Ford Motor Company F reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the second quarter. However, its revenue fell shy of the analysts’ expectations.

Ford reported net income of $2.0 billion, down $190 million from the year-ago while its total adjusted pre-tax profit was $3.0 billion, down $293 million. The company's EPS were $0.49, down $0.05 from the previous year period. Its adjusted earnings per share were also down by $0.02 to $0.52, which fell short of the Street analysts' estimation of $0.60.

The second biggest American automaker reported revenue of $39.5 billion, higher than the Street estimation of $36.31 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Healthways, Inc. HWAY shares shot up 35 percent to $16.48 after the company reported a deal to sell the healthy living business to Sharecare Inc. Healthways reported the closing of strategic assessment.

Shares of Groupon Inc GRPN got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $4.86 as the company after the company reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss and lifted its revenue forecast for 2016.

GrubHub Inc GRUB shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $38.22 after the company posted better-than-expected quarterly results and issued a strong forecast.

Equities Trading DOWN

Infinera Corp. INFN shares dropped 34 percent to $8.27. Infinera posted better-than-expected Q2 results, but issued a weak demand outlook. The company’s CEO said '...demand is softening in certain areas of our business and we face a difficult near-term revenue outlook.'

Shares of Rent-A-Center Inc RCII were down 18 percent to $10.81 after the company posted downbeat quarterly earnings and issued a weak FY16 earnings forecast.

GNC Holdings Inc GNC was down, falling around 25 percent to $20.56. GNC reported better-than-expected Q2 results and announced that its CEO Mike Archbold is leaving the company. The company also suspended its earnings guidance for FY16.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.7 percent to $41.21 while gold traded up 0.58 percent to $1,342.30.

Silver traded up 1.28 percent Thursday to $20.25, while copper rose 1.35 percent to $2.21.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.95 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index declined 2.10 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 2.02 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.43 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.59 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.44 percent.

Economics

U.S. advanced trade gap widened to $63.3 billion in June. Economists projected a trade gap of $61.0 billion. Imports increased $3.3 billion to $183.5 billion in the month, while exports climbed $1.1 billion to $120.2 billion.

Initial jobless claims increased 14,000 to 266,000 last week. However, economists were expecting jobless claims to total 260,000 in the week.

Supplies of natural gas increased 17 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts were estimating a gain of 27 billion cubic feet.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.