Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; Live Ventures Shares Climb After Reporting 92% Rise in FY17 Revenue

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.17 percent to 24,816.96 while the NASDAQ declined 0.01 percent to 6,938.59. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.04 percent to 2,683.67.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the basic materials sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Intrepid Potash, Inc. IPI and Century Aluminum Co CENX.

In trading on Thursday, industrial shares fell 0.05 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included DryShips Inc. DRYS, down 3 percent, and J B Hunt Transport Services Inc JBHT down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Live Ventures Inc LIVE shares gained over 82 percent after reporting a 92 percent increase in revenue for FY 2017 on Wednesday.

Live Ventures Inc LIVE reported FY17 sales of $152 million, up from $79 million in the prior year.

Equities Trading UP

Live Ventures Inc LIVE shares shot up 92 percent to $25.40 after reporting a 92 percent increase in revenue for FY 2017 on Wednesday.

Shares of ZK International Group Co Ltd ZKIN got a boost, shooting up 45 percent to $13.20 after the company reported initial investment from Blockchain.

Digirad Corporation DRAD shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $2.75 after the company reported the sale of Medical Device Sales and Service business unit service contracts to Philips North America for $8 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pareteum Corp TEUM shares dropped 22 percent to $1.96 after declining 10.71 percent on Wednesday.

Shares of Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P CLMT were down 9 percent to $8.05. Calumet Specialty Products Partners reported Q3 loss of $0.30 per share on revenue of $1.09 billion.

Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. EKSO was down, falling around 15 percent to $2.19.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.03 percent to $59.66 while gold traded up 0.18 percent to $1,293.70.

Silver traded up 0.26 percent Thursday to $16.80, while copper rose 0.78 percent to $3.3095.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.05 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.47 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.29 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.14 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.14 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.12 percent.

Economics

The U.S. goods trade deficit increased 2.3 percent to $69.7 billion in November. Economists were expecting a $68.7 billion. Exports increased 3 percent, while imports gained 2.7 percent last month. Advance wholesale inventories climbed 0.7 percent.

Initial jobless claims came in unchanged at 245,000 in the latest week. However, economists projected claims to reach 239,000 last week.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The EIA’s weekly report on petroleum inventories is schedule for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Data on farm prices for November will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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