Benzinga - by Lisa Levin, Benzinga Editor.
U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining 1% on Thursday.
The Dow traded up 0.58% to 33,745.23 while the NASDAQ rose 1% to 13,223.61. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.81% to 4,309.27.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Materials shares rose by 0.9% on Thursday.
In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell by 1.7%.
Top Headline
CarMax Inc (NYSE: KMX) reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.
The company posted a second-quarter FY24 revenue decline of 13.2% year-on-year to $7.07 billion, versus the analyst consensus estimate of $7.03 billion. EPS of $0.75 missed the consensus estimate of $0.78.
Equities Trading UP
Bionomics Limited (NASDAQ: BNOX) shares shot up 247% to $3.4006 after the company announced the ATTUNE trial met its primary endpoint showing BNC210 treatment led to a statistically significant reduction in total PTSD symptom severity at 12 weeks.
Shares of Baudax Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: BXRX) got a boost, shooting 86% to $0.5590 after the company announced it was granted orphan drug designation by the FDA for TI-168 for the treatment of Hemophilia A with inhibitors.
Chico's FAS, Inc. (NYSE: CHS) shares were also up, gaining 62% to $7.47 following the announcement of its acquisition by Sycamore Partners for $1 billion.
Equities Trading DOWN
Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTI) shares dropped 62% to $2.0750 after the company announced pricing of a public offering of units.
Shares of Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BCLI) were down 54% to $0.1821 after the company announced the FDA Advisory Committee voted that NurOwn did not demonstrate substantial evidence of effectiveness for treatment of mild to moderate ALS.
GigaCloud Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: GCT) was down, falling 26% to $7.05 after Culper Research issued a short report on the stock.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $93.06 while gold traded down 0.3% at $1,884.70.
Silver traded up 0.6% to $22.86 on Thursday while copper rose 2.1% to $3.7135.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.21% London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.02% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.03% The German DAX rose 0.46% French CAC 40 rose 0.49%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.38%.
The industry confidence indicator in the Eurozone improved to -9.0 in September from -9.9 in the prior month, while economic sentiment indicator fell to 93.3 in September from a revised reading of 93.6 a month ago. The consumer confidence indicator was confirmed at -17.8 for September.
Spain's retail trade increased by 7.2% year-over-year for August, while annual inflation rate increased for the third consecutive month to 3.5% in September.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 1.54%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.36% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.10%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.9%.
India’s current account deficit shrank to $9.2 billion in the second quarter from $17.9 billion in the year-ago period, while retail sales in Australia rose by 0.2% month-over-month in August.
Economics
U.S. jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 204,000 in the week ending Sept. 23, versus market expectations of 215,000.
The U.S. economy expanded at an annualized rate of 2.1% during the second quarter, unchanged versus the prior estimate, and versus revised 2.2% expansion in the first quarter.
Pending home sales in the U.S. fell by 7.1% month-over-month in August, versus market expectations for a 0.8% decline.
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COVID-19 Update
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 108,670,700 cases with around 1,176,590 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,998,650 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 695,871,940 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,920,660 deaths.
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