US Stock Market Advances Thursday

U.S. stocks advanced on Thursday, ahead of many companies reporting financial results, such as Netflix (NFLX), Morgan Stanley (MS), IBM (IBM, Financial), eBay (EBAY, Financial), SAP (SAP, Financial) and Alcoa (AA, Financial). The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.01% to 27,223, the S&P 500 index gained 0.36% to 2,995, and the Nasdaq Composite index jumped 0.27% to 8,207.

Shares of Alcoa (AA, Financial) gained 1.21% after announcing second-quarter results. The company posted a loss of 1 cent per share and $2.71 billion in revenues, reflecting a 24.3% decline from the comparable trimester of the previous year. The company beat earnings estimates by 1 cent and but missed revenue expectations by $60 million.

“In the second quarter, our Aluminum segment rebounded despite weaker metal prices, and we reported a solid cash balance, even after sizeable cash outlays,” the company's president and CEO Roy Harvey said. “We also maintained strong operational performance across all of our businesses.”

In the quarter, the company posted adjusted Ebitda of $455 million, lower than $783 million in the second quarter of 2018.

Further, its free cash flow was negative in the second quarter due to $306 million in taxes.

For full-year 2019, the company expects a global aluminum deficit, between 1.0 million and 1.4 million metric tons, down from last quarter’s estimate of a deficit from 1.5 million to 1.9 million metric tons.

During the quarter ended March 31, several hedge fund managers were bullish on the stock. Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Lee Ainslie (Trades, Portfolio) and Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) each started a position.

Gainers

• Philip Morris International Inc. (PM, Financial) + 8.22%
• KLA Corp. (KLAC, Financial) + 6.31%
• Union Pacific Corp. (UNP, Financial) + 5.89%
• IBM (IBM, Financial) + 4.59%
• Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT, Financial) + 4.22%

Losers

• Netflix Inc. (NFLX) -10.27%
• United Rentals Inc. (URI, Financial) – 7.89%
• Genuine Parts Co. (GPC, Financial) – 4.51%
• Apache Corp. (APA, Financial) - 3.80%
• CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) – 3.31%

Global markets

The main European stock markets traded lower. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell 0.56%, France's CAC 40 slumped 0.38%, Germany's Dax dipped 0.92% and Spain's Ibex 35 lost 0.63%.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.97%, India’s BSE Sensex lost 0.81%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.46% and China's Shanghai Composite slid 1.04%.

Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.

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