Movers: AMC Ent, Barrick Gold, Berkshire Hathaway, Bed Bath & Beyond, BioNtech, NVIDIA, Palantir

Barry Adams
08 Aug, 2022
New York City

Investors looked ahead to the inflation report after the July payroll increased more-than-expected 528,000. 

Investors are increasingly factoring a larger rate hike of at least 75 basis points at the Fed Reserve's next policy meeting in September. 

The S&P 500 index was nearly unchanged at 4,144.73 and the Nasdaq Composite index gained 0.07% or 8.43 to 12,665.73. 

Futures of crude oil increased $1.0 to $89.98 and natural gas 42 cents to $7.64 a thermal unit. 

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes eased to 2.768% and on the 2-year notes declined to 3.24%. 

Barrick Gold gained 4.5% to $16.37 after the mining company reported better-than-expected earnings on higher copper production. 

Revenues in the second quarter declined 1% to $2.8 billion and net income rose 19% to $488 million from $411 million a year ago. 

Diluted earnings per share rose to 27 cents from 23 cents a year ago. 

Gold production in the quarter was nearly unchanged at 1.04 million ounces and copper production rose 25% to 120 million pounds from a year ago. 

Bed Bath & Beyond soared 37.8% to $11.22 and AMC Entertainment surged 15.1% to $25.53 on no company news. 

Both stocks were driven higher after investors expressed optimism on popular chat boards and social media posts. 

Berkshire Hathaway Inc increased 0.3% to $293.16 after the insurance and industrial conglomerate swung to a second quarter loss of 43.8 billion from a profit of $28.1 billion a year ago.

The GAAP accounting includes the quarterly loss of $53.0 billion in investment security investments. 

Operating earnings in the second quarter increased to $9.3 billion from $6.7 billion a year ago.

Berkshire spent $1.0 billion to acquire its shares and increased the total to $4.2 billion in the first-half of 2022. 

Insurance float, the net liabilities assumed by the company under insurance contracts, was relatively unchanged from the end of 2021 to approximately $147 billion.

BioNTech SE declined 10.5% to $163.95 after the German biotech company reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results. 

The Covid-19 vaccine maker and a development partner with Pfizer said its latest vaccine to treat the latest virus variants is expected to benefit fourth quarter results. 

NVIDIA Corp fell 7.5% to $175.66 after the advanced chipmaker reported second quarter revenues of $6.70 billion, below the company estimate of $8.10 billion. 

Total revenues rose 3% from a year ago and fell 19% from the previous quarter after gaming revenues plunged 33% from a yar ago and dropped 44% from the previous quarter to $2.04 billion.  

Gross margin in the second quarter declined to 43.7% from 64.8% a year ago. 

The revenue shortfall was driven by a decline in gaming products after the end of Covid-19 pandemic driven boom and the rising macro headwinds. 

Palantir Technologies Inc declined 12.1% to $10.08 after the technology contractor for the federal government reported a wider quarterly loss. 

Revenues in the second quarter increased 26% to $473 million and a net loss of $179 million or 9 cents a diluted share from $138.5 million or 7 cents a diluted share. 

For the third quarter, the company guided revenues between $474 million and $475 million and adjusted income from operations between $54 million and $55 million.