Gold Falls Over 1%; UnitedHealth Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded mostly lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling around 1% on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.07% to 52,619.72 while the NASDAQ dipped 0.96% to 26,017.62. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.36% to 7,545.24.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 2.2% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, information technology stocks fell by 1.3%.

Top Headline

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and raised its full-year 2026 earnings guidance.

Adjusted earnings came in at $6.38 per share, topping the analyst consensus estimate of $4.86. Revenue increased to $112.03 billion from $111.62 billion a year earlier and exceeded Wall Street expectations of $110.83 billion. GAAP earnings were $6.04 per share.

Equities Trading UP
           

• Growhub Ltd (NASDAQ:TGHL) shares shot up 80% to $1.46 after the company announced a $400 million merger agreement with EnChem.
• Shares of Twin Vee Powercats Co (NASDAQ:VEEE) got a boost, surging 45% to $38.50 after the company announced a combination agreement which a USFM subsidiary.
• Agape ATP Corp (NASDAQ:ATPC) shares were also up, gaining 40% to $3.52 following the Securities and Exchange Commission filing that disclosed a new stake held by proprietary trading firm and liquidity provider Jane Street Group LLC.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Nuvve Holding Corp (NASDAQ:NVVE) shares dropped 55% to $9.69 after the company announced first-quarter results.
• Shares of Sobr Safe Inc (NASDAQ:SOBR) were down 45% to $1.14 after the company announced an exercise of warrants for $3.1 million gross proceeds.
• AST SpaceMobile Inc (NASDAQ:ASTS) was down, falling 13% to $57.64 after the company announced the pricing of its $1.0 billion proposed public offering of Convertible Senior notes.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $79.46 while gold traded down 1.3% at $3,999.80.

Silver traded down 2.2% to $56.175 on Thursday, while copper rose 0.3% to $6.3605.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.4%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.5% London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.3%, Germany’s DAX declined 0.9%, while France’s CAC 40 dipped 0.7%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipping 2.79%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rising 1.33%, China’s Shanghai Composite dipping 1.85% and India’s BSE Sensex gaining 0.002%.

Economics

• U.S. retail sales increased 0.2% month-over-month in June, compared to a revised 1% gain in May and in-line with market estimates.
• The New York Fed’s services business activity index jumped 19 points to a reading of 8.7 in July.
• The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose to 41.4 in July from 10.3 in the previous month.
• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 8,000 to 208,000 in the week to July 11, compared to market estimates of 217,000.
• U.S. natural-gas stocks rose by 41 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 10, compared to market estimates of a 43 bcf gain.

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