Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 250 Points; Chipotle Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.07 percent to 24,341.85 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.81 percent to 7,130.33. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.20 percent to 2,671.10.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the information technology shares gained 2.42 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included PCM, Inc. PCMI, up 17 percent, and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD, up 13 percent.

In trading on Thursday, telecommunication services shares tumbled 3.29 percent.

Top Headline

Facebook, Inc. FB reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Wednesday.

The social media company reported Q1 EPS of $1.69 vs. $1.35 estimates and sales of $11.97 billion vs. $11.41 billion estimates. Q1 MAUs came in just ahead of estimates at 2.2 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Comstock Resources, Inc. CRK shares shot up 47 percent to $7.01 after the company disclosed a deal with Arkoma Drilling L.P. and Williston Drilling, L.P. to buy oil & gas properties in North Dakota. Comstock announced withdrawal of tender offers for outstanding secured notes.

Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG got a boost, shooting up 25 percent to $423.49 as the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Wednesday.

MarineMax, Inc. HZO shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $21.80 as the company posted upbeat Q2 results and raised its FY18 outlook.

Equities Trading DOWN

Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. SPB shares dropped 21 percent to $74.79 as the company posted downbeat quarterly earnings. Spectrum Brands named David Maura as CEO and reported a $1 billion buyback plan.

Shares of LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. LMAT were down 17 percent to $32.47 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 results.

Essendant Inc ESND was down, falling around 23 percent to $7.38 after reporting downbeat quarterly earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.06 percent to $68.01 while gold traded down 0.32 percent to $1,318.60.

Silver traded down 0.07 percent Thursday to $16.565, while copper fell 0.41 percent to $3.1445.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.94 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.45 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.63 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.74 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.57 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders rose 2.6 percent for March, versus economists’ expectations for a 1.6 percent gain.

The trade deficit in goods shrank 10.3 percent to $68 billion in March. Economists were expecting a deficit of $73.4 billion. Advanced wholesale inventories rose 0.5 percent in March, while advanced retail inventories slipped 0.4 percent.

Initial jobless claims declined 24,000 to 209,000 in the latest week. Economists projected claims to reach 230,000 last week.

Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 18 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 20, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts estimated a fall of 12 billion cubic feet.

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