Stocks began the session little changed as the market digested its big gains from yesterday. The averages have moved in narrow range throughout the morning, but have drifted higher in last half hour. The Dow is leading the way with a gain of 0.3% while the Nasdaq is still in negative ground with losses of 0.2%. There has been little for investors to key in on with the exception of the White House threat to impose additional tariffs on Turkey in an attempt to force the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson, who is being held in the country on spy charges. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading dropped 2.6 points to 95.3 in the August preliminary report after sliding 0.3 ticks to 97.9 in July. The leading economic indicators rose 0.6% to 110.7 in July, marking another record high for the index. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Tesla (TSLA) have slid 7% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC has been investigating since last year whether the car maker misled investors about its Model 3 car production issues and subpoenaed a parts supplier. The news follows an earlier report from the Journal saying that the SEC was pressing Tesla’s directors to provide details on how much information CEO Elon Musk shared with them prior to his tweet about potentially taking the company private. Additionally, Musk told the New York Times in a candid interview that this past year “has been the most difficult and painful year of my career… It was excruciating”… On the earnings front, Nvidia (NVDA) shares fell 4.5% after the company reported second quarter results and provided guidance for the third quarter after the close last night. Of note, Nvidia said that it sees no contributions from cryptocurrency going forward, despite having previously anticipated cryptocurrency contributions “to be meaningful for the year”… Shares of Nordstrom (JWN) rose nearly 12% after the retailer reported better than expected Q2 results last night, with comparable sales rising 4% in the quarter. The company also raised its guidance for earnings, revenue, and comparable sales for fiscal 2018… In addition, Deere (DE) shares were up 3% after the farm equipment maker reported better than expected quarterly results. Of note, the company sees its worldwide agriculture & turf sales rising roughly 15% in fiscal 2018. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Esperion (ESPR), which rose 2% after Citi analyst Joel Beatty upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral, saying he believes bempedoic acid for LDL-lowering is 70% likely to be approved. Also higher was Accuray (ARAY), which gained 6% after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was DSW (DSW), which slipped 5% after Susquehanna analyst Sam Poser downgraded the stock to Negative from Neutral, stating that he expects guidance to be reduced following the next earnings call. Also lower were Adtalem Education (ATGE) and Applied Materials (AMAT), which fell a respective 16% and 6.5% after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 72.64, or 0.28%, to 25,631.37, the Nasdaq was down 13.80, or 0.18%, to 7,792.72, and the S&P 500 was up 3.88, or 0.14%, to 2,844.57.
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