Dow Jumps 350 Points; BJ's Wholesale Club Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining over 350 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.67% to 53,113.67 while the NASDAQ rose 0.06% to 26,082.46. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.32% to 7,663.85.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares jumped by 2% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, utilities stocks fell by 0.3%.

Top Headline

BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter on Friday.

The company posted quarterly earnings of $1.36 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.17 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $6.227 billion which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $5.957 billion.

BJ’s Wholesale raised its FY2026 adjusted EPS guidance from $4.40-$4.60 to $4.60-$4.80.

Equities Trading UP
           

• RF Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ:RFAI) shares shot up 306% to $51.69 following Thursday SEC filings detailing the results of an extraordinary general meeting. At the August 19 meeting, shareholders overwhelmingly approved the proposed business combination with Singapore-based, AI-driven drug discovery firm Nanyang Biologics Pte. Ltd.
• Shares of Werewolf Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:HOWL) got a boost, surging 109% to $0.90 after the company announced a merger with Ambros Therapeutics. The companies secured commitments for an oversubscribed concurrent private placement of $150 million from a syndicate of leading healthcare-dedicated investor.
• Jupiter Neurosciences Inc (NASDAQ:JUNS) shares were also up, gaining 57% to $8.09. Jupiter Neurosciences entered into definitive license agreement with PharmAla for its patented, non-racemic MDMA formulation ALA-002.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Jianzhi Education Tclgy Grp Co Ltd – ADR (NASDAQ:JZ) shares dropped 25% to $2.48 after jumping 95% on Thursday.
• Shares of iSpecimen Inc (NASDAQ:ISPC) were down 22% to $1.76 after declining around 5% on Thursday. iSpecimen announced it completed an international cancer research project.
• Flux Power Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:FLUX) was down, falling 21% to $0.65 after the company reported mixed fourth-quarter financial results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $86.99 while gold traded up 1.6% at $4,642.60.

Silver traded up 2.1% to $69.515 on Friday, while copper rose 2.1% to $6.6070.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.8%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.3%, while France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.2%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.30%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gaining 1.21%, China’s Shanghai Composite rising 0.04% and India’s BSE Sensex gaining 0.004%.

Economics

• The S&P Global US manufacturing PMI fell to 53.2 in August from the previous reading of 53.9, versus market estimates of 53.9.
• The S&P Global services PMI climbed to 56.8 in August from 54.6 in the prior month, versus market estimates of 54.
• The US S&P Global composite PMI climbed to 56 in August from 54.5 in the previous month, recording the strongest growth since April 2022.

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