The Dow is up more 125 points this afternoon
Wall Street is attempting to recover some of yesterday's losses, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), Nasdaq Composite Index (IXIC), and S&P 500 Index (SPX) all higher this afternoon. Following this morning's U.S. trade deficit reading, investors are now unpacking July's job openings that came in at 7.7 million -- their lowest mark since 2021.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- What's the outlook for the overbought defense sector?
- Discount retail stock heading for worst day ever.
- Plus, Zscaler's unusual options volume; HUM's charge up the charts; and Hormel Foods' earnings.
Zscaler Inc (NASDAQ:ZS) is seeing 8 times the intraday average options volume, after the cloud security company's full-year forecast fell short of analysts' estimates. Already, 25,000 calls and 25,000 puts have been traded. New positions are opening at the top six most active contracts, led by the weekly 9/66 150-strike put. Last seen 16% lower at $162.26, ZS is 26.7% lower in 2024 and pulling back toward its May 30 year-to-date low of $155.25.
Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) is the best stock on the SPX so far today, up 4.9% to trade at $381.36, after yesterday reaffirming its full-year outlook. The stock is on pace for its best single-session percentage gain since July, and is moving further above its finicky 100-day moving average. Over the last six months,
HUM is up 12.2%.
Hormel Foods Corp (NYSE:HRL) stock is underperforming on the SPX today, down 8.1% at $30.46 at last glance, after the packaged food maker's fiscal third-quarter sales and
full-year guidance were worse than expected. Today's dip puts HRL below its year-to-date breakeven mark, and it's now 18.9% lower over the last 12 months.