Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.15 percent to 22,373.14 while the NASDAQ declined 0.20 percent to 6,440.14.
The S&P also fell, dropping 0.01 percent to 2,506.71 .
Leading and Lagging Sectors
On Thursday, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares surged 0.59 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector
included Revlon Inc (NYSE: REV), up 16 percent, and
McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE: MKC), up 5
percent.
In trading on Thursday, telecommunications services shares fell 0.43 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included B
Communications Ltd (NASDAQ: BCOM), down 3 percent, and
China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE: CHU) down
2 percent.
Top Headline
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ: BBRY) reported
stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and reported signing of first BlackBerry secure licensing deal.
BlackBerry reported that it earned 5 cents per share in the second quarter on revenue of $238 million. Wall Street analysts were
expecting the Canada-based company to lose 3 cents per share on revenue of $219.9 million.
During the quarter, BlackBerry reported a record software and service revenue of $196 million and approximately 79 percent of
the software and services revenue was recurring in nature. The company ended the quarter with 3,300 enterprise customer orders.
Looking forward to the full fiscal, BlackBerry guided its sales to be in a range of $920 million to $950 million, which came in
higher than the $919.5 million Wall Street analysts were previously modeling.
Equities Trading UP
Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: ZYNE) shares
shot up 57 percent to $9.74 after the company reported top line results in ZYN002 open label Phase 2 FAB-C study in children with
Fragile X syndrome. The study successfully met the primary endpoint.
Shares of Exa Corp (NASDAQ: EXA) got a boost,
shooting up 43 percent to $24.27. Dassault Systèmes announced plans to acquire Exa for $24.25 per share in cash.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ: BBRY) shares were also up,
gaining 13 percent to $10.43 as the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and reported signing of
first BlackBerry secure licensing deal.
Equities Trading DOWN
DexCom, Inc. (NASDAQ: DXCM) shares dropped 34
percent to $44.26 following the FDA approval of Abbott's Blood Glucose Monitoring Device and analyst downgrades.
Shares of Comtech Telecomm. Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL)
were down 17 percent to $17.64. Comtech posted upbeat quarterly earnings, but sales missed estimates.
AngioDynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGO) was down,
falling around 13 percent to $16.39 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.73 percent to $51.76 while gold traded down 0.01 percent to $1,287.70.
Silver traded up 0.02 percent Thursday to $16.83, while copper rose 1.19 percent to $2.9645.
Eurozone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.19 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.39 percent,
while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.15 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.37 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.22
percent while U.K. shares rose 0.13 percent.
Economics
The U.S. economy grew at a pace of 3.1 percent in the second quarter, versus prior reading of 3 percent growth.
Initial jobless claims increased 12,000 to 272,000 in latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 270,000
last week.
U.S. trade deficit dropped 1.4 percent to $62.9 billion in August from $63.9 billion.
Domestic supplies of natural gas gained 58 billion cubic feet for the week ended September 22, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration reported. However, analysts expected a rise of 66 billion cubic feet.
The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for September is schedule for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.
Data on farm prices for August will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
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