Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.42% to 24283.25 while the NASDAQ fell 0.81% to 8842.12. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.31% to 2,900.91.
The U.S. is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 1,040,480 coronavirus cases with around 60,990 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 236,890 coronavirus cases with 24,270 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 203,590 confirmed cases and 27,680 deaths. In total, there were at least 3,207,240 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 227,970 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Consumer discretionary shares slipped by just 0.5% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included OneSpaWorld Holdings Limited OSW, up 33%, and Secoo Holding Limited SECO, up 17%.
In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell 2.9%.
Top Headline
Twitter Inc TWTR reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter.
Twitter reported quarterly earnings of $0.11 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.10 per share. The company’s sales came in at $807.64 million, exceeding the consensus view of $775.96 million.
Twitter’s average monetizable daily active users climbed to 166 million during the first quarter, up from 134 million in the year-ago period.
Equities Trading UP
Marker Therapeutics, Inc. MRKR shares shot up 25% to $2.84 after the company received FDA Orphan Drug Designation for its MT-401.
Shares of Kraton Corporation KRA got a boost, shooting 25% to $16.65 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results.
QEP Resources, Inc. QEP shares were also up, gaining 41% to $1.0099 after the company reported strong Q1 earnings.
Equities Trading DOWN
Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK shares tumbled 32% to $18.22 after a report emerged that the company is preparing a bankruptcy filing, citing people familiar with the matter. Chesapeake Energy has held discussions with creditors about a possible loan that would aid operations while it goes through bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported on Wednesday afternoon.
Shares of Verona Pharma plc VRNA were down 27% to $4.30 after the company reported financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2020, and issued a corporate update.
Zovio Inc ZVO was down, falling 18% to $1.68 after the company reported Q1 results.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 14.7% to $17.28, while gold traded down 1.2% to $1,693.30.
Silver traded down 1.9% Thursday to $15.02, while copper fell 1.2% to $2.343.
Euro zone
European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 2.03%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.89%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.09%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 2.22%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 2.12% while UK shares fell 3.5%.
Economics
U.S. jobless claims climbed 3.8 million for the latest week, versus 4.442 million in the earlier week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 3.5 million.
The employment cost index rose 0.8% for the first quarter.
U.S. consumer spending dropped 7.5% for March, versus analysts’ expectations for a 5% decline. Personal income declined 2.0% in March.
The Chicago PMI fell by 12.4 points to a reading of 35.4 in April.
Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 70 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 24, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a gain of 69 billion cubic feet.
Data on farm prices for March will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
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