Crude Oil Moves Higher; Walmart Raises Guidance

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling around 50 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.15% to 34,714.53 while the NASDAQ fell 0.32% to 13,432.16. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.06% to 4,401.60.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 2.2% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 0.5%.

 

Top Headline

Walmart Inc WMT reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and raised FY24 outlook.

Walmart reported second-quarter FY24 sales growth of 5.7% year-on-year to $161.10 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $160.27 billion. Adjusted EPS was $1.84, beating the consensus of $1.70.

For FY24, the company raised FY24 adjusted EPS guidance from $6.10 - $6.20 to $6.36 - $6.46 versus an estimate of $6.27. It raised FY24 net sales growth outlook to 4% - 4.5% from 3.5% earlier.

 

Equities Trading UP

PhenomeX Inc. CELL shares shot up 139% to $0.9541 after the company announced that it signed a $108 million definitive agreement to be acquired by Bruker in an all-cash transaction at $1 per share.

Shares of LSI Industries Inc. LYTS got a boost, shooting 20% to $15.29 following better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.

Advanced Health Intelligence Ltd. AHI shares were also up, gaining 34% to $5.16. Advanced Health Intelligence said it obtained overseas R&D reimbursement under Australia's research and development tax incentive scheme.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Creative Realities, Inc. CREX shares dropped 35% to $1.9150 after the company reported pricing of $6 million public offering of 3 million shares of common stock at $2 per share.

Shares of EMCORE Corporation EMKR were down 38% to $0.4694 after the company reported pricing of $15.8 million public offering.

Tremor International Ltd TRMR was down, falling 30% to $4.41 after the company reported financial and operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $80.64 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,925.70.

Silver traded up 1% to $22.76 on Thursday while copper rose 0.9% to $3.6890.

 

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.64%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.34% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.56% The German DAX fell 0.51% French CAC 40 fell 0.64%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.83%.

The Eurozone recorded a trade surplus of EUR 23 billion in June versus a year-ago deficit of EUR 27.1 billion. Spain's trade deficit shrank to EUR 2.36 billion in June from EUR 5.39 billion in the year-ago month.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.44%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.43% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.01%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.59%.

Japan's posted a trade deficit of JPY 78.73 billion in July 2023, versus a shortfall of JPY 1,421.92 billion in the year-ago period year. Australian unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in July from 3.5% a month ago.

 

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 11,000 from the previous week’s revised level to 239,000 in the week ending August 12, compared to market expectations of 240,000.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index rose to +12 in August from -13.5 in the prior month and compared to market estimates of -10.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 107,787,600 cases with around 1,172,270 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,996,390 cases and 531,920 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 693,647,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,908,280 deaths.