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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