Crude Oil Gains 1%; US Foods Sales Top Views

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 450 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 1.70% to 39,423.02 while the NASDAQ rose 2.79% to 16,647.90. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 2.25% to 5,316.73.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed by 3.3% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares rose by just 0.5%.

Top Headline

US Foods Holding Corp. USFD reported better-than-expected sales for the second quarter.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 93 cents, in line with the street view. Quarterly sales of $9.70 billion (+7.7%) outpaced the analyst consensus of $9.64 billion.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• XPEL, Inc. XPEL shares shot up 41% to $44.86 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results.
• Shares of Viasat, Inc. VSAT got a boost, surging 43% to $25.41 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.
• GSE Systems, Inc. GVP shares were also up, gaining 45% to $3.9565 after the company announced it will be acquired by Pelican Energy Partners for $4.10 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Cardlytics, Inc. CDLX shares dropped 57% to $2.96 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter financial results.
• Shares of Outset Medical, Inc. OM were down 63% to $1.27 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter financial results and cut its FY24 revenue guidance.
• Bumble Inc. BMBL was down, falling 31% to $5.57 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter revenue results. Also, multiple firms downgraded their respective ratings and price targets on the stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $76.16 while gold traded up 1.3% at $2,464.10.

Silver traded up 2.6% to $27.64 on Thursday, while copper rose 0.5% to $3.9705.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.08%, Germany's DAX rose 0.37% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.26%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.39%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.27%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.74%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.08%, China's Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.002% and S&P BSE Sensex falling 0.73%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 17,000 to 230,000 in the week ending August 3, compared to market estimates of 240,000.
• U.S. wholesale inventories increased by 0.2% month-over-month to $903 billion in June, compared to revised 0.5% rise in the earlier month.
• U.S. natural gas supplies rose 21 billion cubic feet during the week ended Aug. 2, compared to market estimates of a 22 billion cubic feet gain.

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