Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.06 percent to 18,878.76 while the NASDAQ gained 0.60 percent to 5,326.15.
The S&P also rose, gaining 0.41 percent to 2,185.86.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
On Thursday, telecommunications services shares gained by 0.77 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included IDT
Corporation (NYSE: IDT), and China Unicom (Hong Kong)
Limited (ADR) (NYSE: CHU).
In trading on Thursday, utilities shares rose by just 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included New Jersey
Resources Corp (NYSE: NJR), down 5 percent, and Genie
Energy Ltd (NYSE: GNE), down 3 percent.
Top Headline
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) reported mixed
results for its third quarter.
Wal-Mart said it earned $0.98 per share in the quarter on revenue of $117.2 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to earn
$0.96 per share on revenue of $118.7 billion.
Revenue for the quarter rose 0.7 percent from a year ago while U.S. comp sales rose 1.2 percent, driven by a traffic increase of
0.7 percent.
Equities Trading UP
Rand Logistics, Inc. (NASDAQ: RLOG) shares shot up
47 percent to $1.60. Rand Logistics shares have dropped 52.05 percent over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has
gained 6.17 percent in the same period.
Shares of Global Ship Lease Inc (NYSE: GSL) got a
boost, shooting up 22 percent to $2.44 after gaining 28.21 percent on Wednesday.
Western Refining, Inc. (NYSE: WNR) shares were also
up, gaining 22 percent to $37.33 as Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) announced plans to buy Western Refining for $37.30 per share in a stock
transaction.
Equities Trading DOWN
Stage Stores Inc (NYSE: SSI) shares dropped 16
percent to $4.85 as the company reported a wider-than-expected Q3 loss and issued a weak earnings forecast for the current
quarter.
Shares of Stein Mart, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMRT) were
down 19 percent to $5.51 after the company reported weak results for its third quarter.
Sanchez Production Partners LP (NYSE: SPP) was down,
falling around 17 percent to $10.95. Sanchez Production Partners priced its 6.55M share offering at $11 per share.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.46 percent to $46.31 while gold traded up 0.07 percent to $1,224.80.
Silver traded down 0.16 percent Thursday to $16.90, while copper rose 0.79 percent to $2.50.
Eurozone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.63 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.92
percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.03 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.20 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose
0.59 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.67 percent.
Economics
The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in October, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.4 percent growth.
U.S. housing starts rose to an annual rate of 1.32 million in October, versus a revised 1.05 million in September. Economists
expected a rate of 1.17 million for the month.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index declined to a reading of 7.6 in November, versus a reading of 9.7 in October.
Economists were expecting a reading of 8.
Initial jobless claims dropped 19,000 to 235,000 in the latest week. Economists projected claims to total 257,000 in the
week.
Supplies of natural gas increased 30 billion cubic feet for the week ended November 11, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration reported.
Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak in New York at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans is set to speak in Chicago at 2:45 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.