Kroger rises after Q2 earnings beat estimates
Kroger gained about 3% after reporting second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.09 per share and sales of $34.621 billion, both above estimates.
U.S. stocks were higher midway through Friday’s session, with the Nasdaq Composite up over 1% and the major indexes advancing. The Dow rose 1.16% to 52666.76, while the NASDAQ gained 1.23% to 26403.20. The S&P 500 added 1.08% to 7673.87.
Communication services shares climbed 1.7% on Friday, while energy stocks were down 0.2%. Kroger Company stock rose about 3% after the grocer reported second-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations. Adjusted earnings were 1.09 per share versus the 1.06 estimate, and sales of 34.621 billion topped the 34.580 billion estimate. Frequency Electronics shares jumped 30% to 80.96 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.
ACV Auctions shares surged 44% to 10.42 after Copart announced a definitive agreement to acquire the company for 10.50 per share in cash. Indaptus Therapeutics shares were up 7% to 2.73. Therapeutics said it priced a private placement of 20,338,974 shares for gross proceeds of $24 million. CPI Card Group Inc (NASDAQ: PMTS) fell 16% to $22.61 after it priced a proposed secondary public offering of 2,337,323 shares at $21.50 a share.
Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NYSE: OPTT) slid 40% to $0.095 after announcing a 1-for-30 reverse stock split that will take effect September 14. NuScale Power Corp (NYSE: SMR) dropped 11% to $9.12 after UBS cut its rating to Sell from Neutral and reduced its target to $6 from $10. In commodities, oil traded down 2.9% to $99.54, while gold rose 0.2% to $4,416.10. Silver rose 0.6% to $65.335 on Friday, while copper gained 0.1% to $6.5475.
European shares were higher, with the STOXX 600 up 0.5%, Spain’s IBEX 35 up 0.8%, London’s FTSE 100 up 0.4%, Germany’s DAX up 0.7% and France’s CAC 40 up 0.7%. Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 1.93%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.60%, China’s Shanghai Composite was down 1.18% and India’s BSE Sensex was down 0.16%. U.S. annual inflation held at 3.4% in August, in line with market consensus and unchanged from July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to 47.8 in early September, versus expectations of 51.0.