Crude Oil Moves Higher; Best Buy Posts Upbeat Earnings
U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 100 points on Thursday.
The Dow traded down 0.16% to 38,884.96 while the NASDAQ rose 0.38% to 16,008.19. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.16% to 5,077.83.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Real estate shares rose by 0.6% on Thursday.
In trading on Thursday, health care shares fell by 0.5%.
Top Headline
Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.
The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $2.72, beating the street view of $2.51. Quarterly sales of $14.646 billion beat the analyst consensus of $14.533 billion.
The firm approved a 2% increase in the regular quarterly dividend to $0.94 per share.
Best Buy sees FY25 adjusted earnings per share of $5.75-$6.20 versus the $6.13 estimate. The company sees revenue of $41.3 billion-$42.6 billion versus $42.37 billion estimate.
Equities Trading UP
Societal CDMO, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCTL) shares shot up 132% to $1.0650. Privately held CoreRx Inc. will acquire Societal CDMO, a contract development and manufacturing organization.
Shares of Enveric Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENVB) got a boost, surging 155% to $2.12. Enveric Biosciences signed a non-binding term sheets to pursue the exclusive out-licensing of three classes of compounds.
Vertex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERX) shares were also up, gaining 32% to $33.46 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and issued strong FY24 guidance.
Equities Trading DOWN
LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) shares dropped 40% to $1.4450 following fourth-quarter financial results.
Shares of Endava plc (NYSE:DAVA) were down 39% to $38.99 following second-quarter earnings.
Kineta, Inc. (NASDAQ:KA) was down, falling 44% to $1.29 as the company announced intention to explore strategic alternatives.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $79.26 while gold traded up 0.5% at $2,053.80.
Silver traded rose 0.8% to $22.82 on Thursday while copper rose 0.3% to $3.8510.
Euro zone
European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.01%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.07% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.67% The German DAX gained 0.44% French CAC 40 fell 0.34% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.11%.
German jobless rate held came in unchanged at 5.9% in February, while German retail sales fell by 0.4% month-over-month in January. Spanish annual consumer price inflation rate declined to a six-month low level of 2.8% in February.
French economy expanded 0.1% on quarter in the fourth quarter. The annual inflation rate in France eased to 2.9% in February, while producer prices declined 1.3% month-over-month in January.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.11%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.15%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.94% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.27%.
Indian fiscal deficit shrank to INR 11.03 trillion in April-January compared to INR 11.91 trillion in the year-ago period. Japanese housing starts fell by 7.5% year-over-year in January following a 4.0% decline in the previous month. Retail sales in Japan gained 2.3% year-over-year in January.
Economics
The annual PCE inflation rate eased slightly from 2.6% in December 2023 to 2.4% in January 2024. Excluding energy and food, the core PCE index saw a year-on-year surge of 2.8%, down from the 2.9% rate seen December and in line with the expected decrease to 2.8%.
Personal spending rose by 0.2% from the previous month, while personal income rose by 1%.
U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 13,000 to 215,000 in the week ending Feb. 24.
The Chicago PMI declined to 44 in February from 46 in the previous month.
Pending home sales in the U.S. fell by 4.9% from the prior month in January.
U.S. natural-gas supplies fell 96 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the week ended Feb. 23, 2024.
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