Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Kroger Posts Upbeat Sales

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.87% to 26734.75 while the NASDAQ rose 1.11% to 8,075.72. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.91% to 2,953.03.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Roan Resources, Inc. ROAN, up 27%, and Seadrill Limited SDRL, up 13%.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

Kroger Co KR reported in-line earnings for its second quarter, while sales exceeded estimates.

Kroger reported second-quarter earnings of 72 cents per share, which met the analyst consensus estimate. The company reported quarterly sales of $37.251 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $37.21 billion. The company sees FY2019 adjusted EPS between $2.15 and $2.25.

Equities Trading UP

Edesa Biotech, Inc. EDSA shares shot up 143% to $10.28 after the company received FDA approval to proceed with its US study of EB01 as a potential treatment for chronic allergic contact dermatitis.

Shares of DiaMedica Therapeutics Inc. DMAC got a boost, shooting up 31% to $5.02 after the company announced DM199 was observed to be safe and well tolerated with no drug-related serious adverse effects in the Phase 1b trial.

Guardion Health Sciences, Inc. GHSI shares were also up, gaining 28% to $1.80 after the company's MapcatSF received a patent from the European Union.

Equities Trading DOWN

Scholar Rock Holding Corporation SRRK shares tumbled 13% to $14.91 after the company priced a 3 million share common stock offering at $15 per share.

Shares of Steelcase Inc. SCS were down 11% to $15.77 after reporting downbeat results for its first quarter.

Genocea Biosciences, Inc. GNCA was down, falling 10% to $3.46 after the company priced a 10.5 million share public offering of common stock at $3.50 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.2% to $55.47, while gold traded up 2.6% to $1,384.30.

Silver traded up 2.3% Thursday to $15.295, while copper rose 1.5% to $2.721.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.7%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.8%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.8%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.6% while UK shares rose 0.7%.

Economics

Initial jobless claims dropped 6,000 to 216,000 in the week ended June 15. However, economists were expecting a reading of 220,000.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index dropped to a reading of 0.3 in June, versus a reading of 16.6 in the previous month. However, economists projected a reading of 8.

The U.S. current-account deficit declined 9.4% to $130.4 billion in the first quarter, compared to a revised $143.9 billion for the fourth quarter.

The index of leading economic indicators was unchanged for May.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

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