Mid-Afternoon Market Update: BJ's Wholesale Club Surges Following Upbeat Q2 Earnings; Clearside Biomedical Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.22% to 26259.91 while the NASDAQ fell 0.29% to 7,997.14. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.01% to 2,924.11.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 0.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Federal National Mortgage Association FNMA, up 9%, and Sirius International Insurance Group, Ltd. SG, up 16%.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

Hormel Foods Corporation HRL reported better-than-expected third-quarter EPS and sales results. The company also reaffirmed 2020 EPS and sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Hormel Foods reported third-quarter earnings of 37 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 36 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $2.291 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.29 billion.

Equities Trading UP

The Cato Corporation CATO shares shot up 16% to $16.10 after the company reported Q2 EPS results up from last year and better-than-expected sales results..

Shares of BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. BJ got a boost, shooting up 17% to $26.34 after reporting upbeat Q2 earnings.

Net Element, Inc. NETE shares were also up, gaining 37% to $4.51 after the company disclosed that its subsidiary, Unified Payments, is entering the $13 billion property management industry through its partnership with VIP Systems.

Equities Trading DOWN

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. CLSD shares tumbled 40% to $0. after the company issued an update on what transpired at a meetingwith the FDA regarding the new drug application for Xipere. In a meeting this week, the FDA'sOffice of Pharmaceutical Quality sought stability data for the triamcinolone acetonide, or TA, suspension produced utilizing an enhanced manufacturing process enacted by the company, Clearside said Thursday. The company submitted an NDA through the 505(b)(2) pathway seeking approval for Xipere, chemically triamcinolone acetonide suprachoroidal injectable suspension. The company said it expects a complete response letter from the FDA on or before the PDUFA action date. The company plans a resubmission in the first quarter of 2020 with the requested stability data.

Shares of Avinger, Inc. AVGR were down 33% to $1.1250. Avinger priced 3,813,559 share underwritten public offering of common stock at $1.18 per share.

Stein Mart, Inc. SMRT was down, falling 22% to $0.74 after the company reported Q2 EPS and sales results down from last year.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $55.71, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,509.50.

Silver traded down 0.6% Thursday to $17.05, while copper fell 1% to $2.56.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.40%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.17%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.14%. Meanwhile, the German DAX fell 0.47% and the French CAC 40 fell 0.87% while UK shares fell 1.05%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims fell 12,000 to 209,000 for the latest week. Economists were expecting a reading of 215,000.

The IHS Markit manufacturing flash PMI declined to 49.9 in August, compared to prior reading of 50.4. Services flash PMI slipped to 50.9 in August from 53.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.5% for July.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 59 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 16, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a gain of 61 billion cubic feet.

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