Courtesy of Benzinga.
Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.85 percent to 15,630.02 while the NASDAQ surged 1.35 percent to 3,674.55. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.28 percent to 1,707.38.
Top Headline
Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE: PG) reported a 48% drop in its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings.
P&G’s quarterly profit fell to $1.88 billion, or $0.64 per share, from $3.63 billion, or $1.24 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, its core earnings declined to $0.79 from $0.82 per share.
Its sales rose 2.2% to $20.66 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.77 per share on revenue of $20.54 billion.
Equities Trading UP
Yelp (NYSE: YELP) shot up 24.11 percent to $51.88 after the company reported a narrower-than-expected Q2 loss.
Shares of Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ: SFM) was also up, gaining a staggering 118.50 percent to $39.33 after the company posted a wildly successful IPO.
Trulia (NYSE: TRLA) was also up, gaining 21.34 percent to $45.21 after the company posted an earnings beat after the close Thursday and guided its third-quarter revenue higher.
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HALO) were down 15.16 percent to $7.22 on VPHM update.
NII Holdings (NASDAQ: NIHD) shares tumbled 6.98 percent to $6.69 on Q2 results.
Hanger (NYSE: HGR) was also down, falling 14.68 percent to $31.50 after it missed on earnings slightly, despite a defense of its Buy rating from Jefferies this morning.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 2.65 percent to $107.81, while gold traded down 0.17 percent to $1,310.40.
Silver traded down 0.82 percent Thursday to $19.69, while copper rose 1.49 percent to $3.165.
Eurozone
European shares were higher on strong PMI data. The Spanish Ibex Index gained 1.04 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index surged 2.04 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 1.63 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.25 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.92 percent.
Economics
US jobless claims declined by 19,000 to 326,000 in the week ended July 27. However, economists were projecting claims to total 345,000 in the week.
The final reading of the Markit manufacturing PMI rose to 53.7 in July, versus the flash reading of 53.2 and up from a reading of 51.9 in June.
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to -27.00 for the week ended July 28, versus a prior reading of -27.30.
The ISM manufacturing index rose to 55.40 in July, versus a prior reading of 50.90. However, economists were expecting a reading of 52.00.
US construction spending dropped 0.6% to an annualized rate of $883.9 billion in June. However, economists were expecting a 0.5% rise.
Natural gas supplies rose 59 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 26, the US Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a rise between 54 billion cubic feet and 58 billion cubic feet.
