Illumina Stock Jumps After Grail Spinoff News

Major U.S. equities indexes were mixed and little changed on the final day of trading before the release of highly anticipated labor market data from May.

Investors will be monitoring the jobs report for signals of economic resilience and considering the ramifications for the Federal Reserve as policymakers consider potential interest rate cuts.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both slipped less than 0.1% on Thursday, with both indexes ending the day just beneath the all-time closing highs posted Wednesday. The Dow closed the day 0.2% higher, led by a strong performance from business software provider Salesforce (CRM).

Shares of Texas-based electric utility Vistra (VST) plunged 6.2%, marking the weakest performance of any S&P 500 component and adding to a string of losses posted over the past week. Although the stock saw strong gains in May amid enthusiasm for the firm’s opportunity to supply power for artificial intelligence (AI) processes, Vistra’s recent announcement that it would add dispatchable capacity to bolster the Texas power grid raised concerns about oversupply.

The uncertainties surrounding the electricity market also pressured shares of fellow Lone Star State power generator NRG Energy (NRG), which dropped 4.6%. The decline suffered by NRG stock on Thursday reversed gains posted in the previous session.

Shares of Hubbell (HUBB), which provides electrical products for construction, industrial, and utility markets, fell 4.1%. The company faces intense competition in many of its product categories, and analysts have forecast a slowdown in Hubbell’s earnings growth in the coming quarters.

Shares of genetic analysis firm Illumina (ILMN) posted Thursday’s top performance in the S&P 500, soaring 7.4% following an announcement earlier this week that its board has approved the spinoff of blood testing company Grail. The move follows a longstanding conflict with European regulators, which mandated in 2022 that Illumina divest from Grail amid concerns that it could restrict competition in blood-based cancer detection. Analysts at Stephens & Co. rated Illumina stock as “overweight” following the spinoff news.

PayPal Holdings (PYPL) shares advanced 5.5% following positive comments from the CEO of the payment processing firm at an investor conference. In addition, analysts at Mizuho boosted their price target on PayPal stock, highlighting the potential of the company’s new Fastlane system, which aims to accelerate the checkout process for online transactions.

Shares of Marketaxess (MKTX) added 4.9% after the fixed-income electronic trading platform reported increases in market share and trading volumes in May. A significant portion of the growth occurred in portfolio and dealer-to-dealer trading volumes.

Lululemon Athletica (LULU) shares added 4.8% after the activewear retailer reported better-than-expected quarterly sales and profits, boosted its full-year earnings guidance on expectations of inventory improvement in the second half of 2024, and authorized an additional $1 billion in share repurchases. The seller of yoga attire and other workout apparel also posted higher sales in China.