Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.10 percent to 24,230.91 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.24 percent to
7,051.77. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.28 percent to 2,623.41.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Thursday afternoon, the materials shares rose 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Nexa Resources
S.A. (NYSE: NEXA) up 6 percent, and Sibanye
Gold Limited (NYSE: SBGL) up 7 percent.
In trading on Thursday, communication services shares fell 0.1 percent.
Top Headline
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) reported a
top-and-bottom line miss in its fourth quarter.
Morgan Stanley said it earned 80 cents per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $8.548 billion versus expectations of 92
cents per share on revenue of $9.43 billion.
Net income during the quarter improved from $643 million from the same quarter last year to $1.5 billion although this quarter's
performance included an intermittent net discrete tax benefit of $111 million and last year's income included a similar benefit of
$1 billion.
Equities Trading UP
Lipocine Inc. (NASDAQ: LPCN) shares got
a boost, shooting up 28 percent to $2.0400 following the release of results from a study evaluating LPCN 1144, its pipeline asset
for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Lipocine announced Thursday that eight-week top-line, interim results from an ongoing
16-week liver fat imaging study of LPCN 1144 showed an absolute mean reduction from the baseline of 7. 6-percent liver fat and a
38-percent relative mean liver fat reduction from baseline.
Shares of Correvio Pharma Corp. (NASDAQ: CORV) shot up 34 percent to $3.0500 after the company said it does not plan to
sell more shares through its at-the-money offering.
LM Funding America, Inc. (NASDAQ: LMFA)
shares were also up, gaining 52 percent to $2.1600 after acquiring IIU, a medical insurance product company.
Equities Trading DOWN
Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE: SIG) shares
dropped 23 percent to $25.67 after the company reported a weak same store sales growth outlook for Q4.
Shares of Earthstone Energy, Inc. (NYSE: ESTE) were down 21 percent to $5.34. Earthstone reported FY18 sales volume of 9,930
barrels of oil equivalent/day, up 26 percent year over year. The company expects FY19 average daily production of 11,000-12,000
barrels of oil equivalent/day.
Insteel Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: IIIN)
was down, falling around 13 percent to $21.36 after reporting Q1 earnings. Insteel Industries reported Q1 profit of $4.1 million on
revenue of $104.1 million.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.88 percent to $51.85 while gold traded down 0.09 percent to $1,292.70.
Silver traded down 0.59 percent Thursday to $15.545, while copper rose 0.36 percent to $2.683.
Eurozone
European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.04 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.05
percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.04 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.12 percent, and the French CAC 40
fell 0.34 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.4 percent.
Economics
The Philly Fed's manufacturing index rose to 17.00 for January, versus December reading of 9.10. However, economists were
expecting a reading of 9.70.
Initial jobless claims fell 3,000 to 213,000 in the latest week. Economists were projecting a reading of 219,000.
Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 81 billion cubic feet for the week ended January 11, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration reported. However, analysts expected a fall of 73 billion cubic feet.
Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
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