Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Higher; Viacom Profit Beats Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.01 percent to 25,580.33 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.21 percent to 7,904.82. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.01 percent to 2,857.99.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the materials shares climbed 0.50 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pan American Silver Corp. PAAS up 10 percent, and Aluminum Corporation of China Limited ACH up 6 percent.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.45 percent.

Top Headline

Viacom, Inc. VIA reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Earnings came in at $1.18 per share, beating market estimates of $1.07 per share. Sales came in at $3.24 billion, beating estimates of $3.26 billion. Its worldwide affiliate revenue declined 3 percent to $1.15 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Belmond Ltd. BEL shares shot up 38 percent to $15.40 after company released mixed earnings report Wednesday after close.

Shares of Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CTXR got a boost, shooting up 58 percent to $1.80 after the company priced $10 million, 7.84 million share offering at the market, for an effective price of $1.275.

Yelp Inc. YELP shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $47.19 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and lifted its guidance for the full year.

Equities Trading DOWN

iPass Inc. IPAS shares dropped 32 percent to $0.265 after the company missed Q2 earnings estimates.

Shares of Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMPE were down 40 percent to $0.3675 after announcing a common stock offering.

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. ELF was down, falling around 27 percent to $10.89 after cutting its FY2018 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.13 percent to $67.03 while gold traded up 0.25 percent to $1,224.00.

Silver traded up 0.51 percent Thursday to $15.51, while copper rose 1.85 to $2.802.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.23 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.20 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.68 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.12 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.34 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.68 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims declined 6,000 to 213,000 for the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 220,000 reading.

The Producer Price Index came in flat for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent rise.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.1 percent for June.

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

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