Yelp Surges On Narrower Loss, SunPower Shares Decline

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.83 percent to 15,628.02 while the NASDAQ surged 1.14 percent to 3,667.55. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.11 percent to 1,704.38.

Top Headline
Procter & Gamble (PG) reported a 48 percent 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 percent to $20.66 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.77 per share on revenue of $20.54 billion.

Equities Trading UP
Yelp (YELP) shot up 22 percent to $50.99 after the company reported a narrower-than-expected Q2 loss. Shares of Ctrip.com International (CTRP) got a boost, shooting up 15.71 percent to $42.35 after the company reported upbeat Q2 results. Ruckus Wireless (RKUS) was also up, gaining 10.29 percent to $14.68 on strong Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO) were down 16.80 percent to $7.08 on VPHM update. NII Holdings (NIHD) shares tumbled 5.69 percent to $6.79 on Q2 results. SunPower (SPWR) was down, falling 7.02 percent to $25.71 after the company issued weak Q3 revenue outlook.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 2.29 percent to $107.44, while gold traded up 0.03 percent to $1,313.40. Silver traded up 0.21 percent Thursday to $19.67, while copper rose 1.83 percent to $3.18.

Euro zone
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 percent to an annualized rate of $883.9 billion in June. However, economists were expecting a 0.5 percent 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.

BY Jake L'Ecuyer