Oil Rises; Dollar General Shares Up on Q2 Earnings Beat

U.S. stocks traded higher mid-session Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up about 200 points.

The Dow rose 0.39% to 53,673.57 points; the Nasdaq climbed 1.53% to 26,530.37 points; the S&P 500 also gained 0.79% to 7,736.71 points.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology sectors rose 3.2% Thursday.

In Thursday trading, consumer staples sectors fell 1.1%.

Headline News

Dollar General shares rose more than 5% Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and raised its fiscal 2026 guidance, beating estimates.

Dollar General reported quarterly earnings per share of $2.23, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $2.01. The company reported quarterly sales of $11.290 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $11.197 billion.

Gainers

Propanc Biopharma Inc shares surged 157% to $2.75 after the company released preclinical and early translational data for its lead drug candidate PRP in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Okta Inc shares gained, jumping 22% to $164.62 after the company reported strong second-quarter results.

Veeva Systems Inc shares also rose 18% to $289.44 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results.

Losers

Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc shares fell 23% to $30.06 after the company reported second-quarter sales that missed expectations and lowered its fiscal 2026 sales guidance, below estimates.

Healthequity Inc shares fell 14% to $89.52 after the company reported second-quarter financial results. The company confirmed its fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings per share guidance, with the midpoint below expectations.

Wendy’s Co shares fell 13% to $7.86 following reports that Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund did not make a privatization offer for the company.

Commodities

In commodities news, crude oil prices rose 0.8% to $82.88 per barrel; gold prices fell 0.5% to $4,630.10 per ounce.

Silver rose 0.3% Thursday to $68.245 per ounce; copper prices rose 1.1% to $6.6730 per pound.

Eurozone

European stocks traded lower today. The Eurozone STOXX 600 index fell 0.9%, Spain’s IBEX 35 fell 0.9%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.9%, Germany’s DAX slipped 0.1%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 1.7%.

Asia-Pacific Markets

Asian markets mostly closed lower Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.20%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.34%, China’s Shanghai Composite rising 1.13%, and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.70%.

Economic Data

U.S. initial jobless claims for the third week of August decreased by 4,000 to 203,000, versus the market expectation of 208,000.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 1.3% month-over-month in July to $959.1 billion, following a revised 0.3% increase in June.

The U.S. goods trade deficit widened to $118.8 billion in July from $101.4 billion in the previous month.