Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Pier 1 Imports Falls On Downbeat Q4 Results; Mustang Bio Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.55 percent to 26,594.39 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.07 percent to 8,001.70. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.25 percent to 2,907.87.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the industrial shares rose 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included ManpowerGroup Inc. MAN up 10 percent, and Herc Holdings Inc. HRI up 9 percent.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.3 percent.

Top Headline

Honeywell International Inc. HON reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter and raised its FY19 guidance.

Honeywell said it earned $1.92 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $8.884 billion versus expectations of $1.83 per share and $8.63 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Mustang Bio, Inc. MBIO shares got a boost, shooting up 126 percent to $6.03. The microcap biotech that develops next-gen cell and gene therapies for hematologic cancers, glioblastoma and rare genetic diseases announced Wednesday after the market close positive data for a lentiviral gene therapy, which it has licensed from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The lentiviral gene therapy is being evaluated for safety and efficacy in newly-diagnosed infants under two years old with X-line severe combined immunodeficiency, or XSCID, commonly called "bubble boy disease."

Shares of Greenlane Holdings, Inc. GNLN shot up 38 percent to $23.44. Greenlane priced its IPO at $17 per share.

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. ZM shares were also up, gaining 80 percent to $64.66. Zoom Video Communications priced its IPO at $36 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

StoneCo Ltd. STNE shares dropped 27 percent to $25.39 following a comment from Morgan Stanley highlighting news that Brazil's Itau would advance cash from merchants with less than R$30 million in sales and without changing the interest.

Shares of Pier 1 Imports, Inc. PIR were down 23 percent to $0.5003 after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter. The company’s CFO Nancy Walsh is leaving the company and Deborah Rieger-Paganis has been appointed interim CFO.

Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ATNM was down, falling around 33 percent to $0.3050 after the company priced a 43 million share common stock offering at $0.385 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2 percent to $63.90 while gold traded down 0.1 percent to $1,276.20.

Silver traded up 0.1 percent Thursday to $14.95, while copper fell 1.6 percent to $2.921.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.22 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.34 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.2 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.57 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.31 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.15 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 5,000 to 192,000 in the latest week.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve manufacturing index fell to 8.5 in April, versus a reading of 13.7 in March.

U.S. retail sales rose 1 percent for March.

The IHS Markit's flash services PMI dropped to 52.9 from 55.3, while manufacturing PMI came in flat at 52.4.

U.S. business inventories increased 0.3 percent for February.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 percent for March.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 92 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 12, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.