Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.01 percent to 24,771.99 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.04 percent to
7,401.02. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.08 percent to 2,724.60.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Thursday morning, the energy shares rose 0.76 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Seadrill Limited
(NYSE: SDRL), up 59 percent, and EP Energy Corporation
(NYSE: EPE) up 7 percent.
In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell 0.36 percent.
Top Headline
Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) reported better-than-expected
results for its first quarter.
Walmart said it earned $1.14 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $120.7 billion versus Wall Street's estimate of $1.13
per share on revenue of $120.51 billion.
Walmart U.S. comp sales rose 2.1 percent, comp traffic rose 0.8 percent. Comp sales at Sam's Club rose 3.8 percent on a traffic
growth of 5.6 percent. Online sales also grew 33 percent in the quarter which marks a reversal from the prior quarter's
disappointing performance in the prior quarter.
Equities Trading UP
Carver Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: CARV) shares shot up
71 percent to $6.25.
Shares of Loxo Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ: LOXO) got a
boost, shooting up 22 percent to $170.37. The biopharmaceutical company that focuses on medicines for patients with genetically
defined cancers said its oral presentation of LOXO-292 was selected for the "Best of ASCO" program.
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWE)
shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $50.75. The company's "Smackdown Live" may not be renewed at NBCUniversal network and
the company's "Monday Night Raw" program could be worth three times its current value elsewhere, according to a report for The
Hollywood Reporter.
Equities Trading DOWN
Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNCE) shares
dropped 31 percent to $12.23. Abstract of the Phase 1/2 ICONIC trial that evaluated JTX-2011 monotherapy as well as in combination
with nivolumab showed that the company has met its target enrolment in its combination cohorts across four solid tumor types,
namely gastric cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, head and neck squamous cell cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.
Shares of J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) were
down 10 percent to $2.765 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results and lowered its FY2018 guidance.
Aircastle Limited (NYSE: AYR) was down, falling
around 8 percent to $21.15 following announcement of 7.9 million share secondary offering.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.69 percent to $71.98 while gold traded down 0.18 percent to $1,289.20.
Silver traded up 0.64 percent Thursday to $16.475, while copper rose 0.28 to $3.079.
.
Eurozone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.21 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.67 percent, while
Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.01 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.28 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.45 percent
while U.K. shares rose 0.24 percent.
Economics
Initial jobless claims increased 11,000 to 222,000 in the latest week. Economists were projecting claims to total 215,000 last
week.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose to 34.4 for May, compared to 23.3 in April. Economists expected a reading of
21.9.
The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 percent for April.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at
10:30 a.m. ET.
Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 10:45 a.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
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