Crude Oil Falls 1%; Meta Earnings Top Views

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.15% to 44,393.57 while the NASDAQ rose 0.62% to 21,260.82. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.27% to 6,380.37.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 2.5% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, health care stocks dipped by 0.8%.

Top Headline

Meta Platforms Inc META reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and issued third-quarter sales guidance above estimates on Wednesday.

Meta reported second-quarter revenue of $47.52 billion, beating analyst estimates of $44.58 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. The company reported second-quarter earnings of $7.14 per share, beating estimates of $5.79 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Soligenix, Inc. SNGX shares shot up 172% to $3.40 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter EPS and sales.
Shares of VerifyMe, Inc. VRME got a boost, surging 59% to $1.0909 after the company announced it entered into a 3-year UPS Digital Channel Program Agreement with the United Parcel Service.
Applied Digital Corporation APLD shares were also up, gaining 36% to $13.62 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly adjusted EPS results. Additionally, Needham and HC Wainwright & Co. raised their respective price targets on the stock.

Equities Trading DOWN

Trending Investment Opportunities

Pulmonx Corporation LUNG shares dropped 38% to $1.9499 after the company reported second-quarter financial results and cut its FY25 sales guidance below estimates. Also, Piper Sandler downgraded the stock from Overweight to Neutral and cut its price target from $9 to $2.5, while D. Boral Capital cut its price target from $17 to $16.
Shares of Align Technology, Inc. ALGN were down 33% to $136.89 after the company missed second-quarter earnings estimates and issued soft third-quarter guidance.
GRI Bio, Inc. GRI was down, falling 28% to $1.4905 as the company reported 6-week interim biomarker results from Phase 2a idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis study.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $69.25 while gold traded down 0.2% at $3,346.70.

Silver traded down 3.2% to $36.54 on Thursday, while copper fell 22% to $4.3600.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.57%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index gained 0.33%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.01%, Germany's DAX 40 declined 0.70% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.71% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 1.02%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 1.60%, China's Shanghai Composite dipping 1.18% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.36%.

Economics

The core PCE price index rose 0.3% from the previous month in June.
Personal spending rose 0.3% month-over-month in June, while personal income rose by 0.3% month-over-month to $25.794 trillion.
U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 1,000 from the previous week to 218,000 in the fourth week of July, compared to market estimates of 224,000.
U.S. employment costs rose by 0.9% in the second quarter.
U.S.-based employers announced job cuts of 62,075 in July.
U.S. natural-gas stocks rose 48 billion cubic feet in the week ending July 25.
The Chicago Business Barometer climbed to 47.1 in July versus 40.4 in June.

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