Crude Oil Moves Higher; Dollar General Earnings Miss Estimates
By Benzinga
U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining 1% on Thursday.
The Dow traded up 1.02% to 41,508.88 while the NASDAQ rose 0.34% to 17,616.32. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.50% to 5,620.08.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares climbed by 1.5% on Thursday.
In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell by 0.5%.
Top Headline
Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) reported worse-than-expected second-quarter results and lowered its 2024 guidance.
The retail behemoth reported second-quarter earnings per share of $1.70, missing the analyst consensus of $1.78. Quarterly sales of $10.21 billion (+4.2% year over year) missed the street view of $10.368 billion.
Dollar General has revised its fiscal year 2024 outlook, lowering its EPS forecast from a range of $6.80 to $7.55 to a new range of $5.50 to $6.20, compared to the $7.12 estimate. The company also reduced its revenue forecast from $41.01 billion to $41.28 billion to a revised range of $40.51 billion to $40.74 billion, against the $41.02 billion estimate.
Equities Trading UP
- BioCardia, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCDA) shares shot up 51% to $3.32 after FDA cleared the company to market its Morph DNA Steerable Introducer product family.
- Shares of Innovative Eyewear, Inc. (NASDAQ:LUCY) got a boost, surging 85% to $6.13 after the company announced that its Lucyd Lyte frames are now being sold on Target.com.
- Affirm Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFRM) shares were also up, gaining 33% to $41.90 following strong fourth-quarter earnings and upbeat first-quarter guidance.
Equities Trading DOWN
- iLearningEngines, Inc. (NASDAQ:AILE) shares dropped 56% to $1.3950 after Hindenburg issued a short report on the stock.
- Shares of Ensysce Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENSC) were down 30% to $0.4406 after the company announced a $5 million registered direct offering and concurrent private placement.
- Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE:BIG) was down, falling 38% to $0.5812 after a report suggesting the company is considering a bankruptcy filing.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.8% to $75.88 while gold traded up 0.9% at $2,559.70.
Silver traded up 2.5% to $29.925 on Thursday, while copper rose 0.1% to $4.2225.
Euro zone
European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.76%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.69% and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.84%. Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.23%, while London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.43%.
Annual inflation rate in Germany eased to 1.9% in August from 2.3% in July. The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone declined to -13.5 in August, versus earlier expectations of -13.4. The economic sentiment indicator in the Eurozone climbed to 96.6 in August from the revised 96 in the prior month
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.02%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.53%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.50% and India’s BSE Sensex rising 0.43%.
The consumer confidence index in Japan came in unchanged at 36.7 in August.
Economics
- Core PCE prices in the U.S. increased by 2.8% from the prior quarter in the second, compared to market estimates of 2.9%.
- U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 2,000 from the prior week to 231,000 in the period ending Aug. 24.
- U.S. real gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 3.0% in the second quarter, up from 1.4% in the first quarter.
- The U.S. trade deficit in goods increased to $102.7 billion in July versus a revised $96.6 billion gap in the prior month.
- U.S. wholesale inventories rose by 0.3% month-over-month to $905 billion in July, versus a revised 0.2% gain in the earlier month.
- U.S. natural gas stocks rose 35 billion cubic feet during the week that ended Aug. 23.
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