Mid-Day Market Update: Silver Down 1%; Greenland Technologies Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.71% to 31,388.19 while the NASDAQ fell 1.11% to 13,810.53. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.76% to 3,901.33.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 27,827,800 cases with around 490,710 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,950,200 confirmed cases and 156,010 deaths, while Brazil reported over 9,978,740 COVID-19 cases with 242,090 deaths. In total, there were at least 110,002,080 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,432,600 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included FirstEnergy Corp. FE, up 7%, and Vistra Corp VST, up 4%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 1.3%.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc. WMT reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales exceeded views.

Walmart reported quarterly earnings of $1.39 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $1.50 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $152.10 billion, versus expectations of $148.47 billion.

Walmart raised its quarterly dividend from $0.54 to $0.55 per share and also reported a $20 billion buyback plan. The company said, excluding the effect of divestitures, FY22 net sales are expected to grow low single-digits with operating income and EPS expected to be flat to up slightly.

Equities Trading UP

Greenland Technologies Holding Corp GTEC shares shot up 122% to $16.77 following news of a deal with South China Heavy Machinery Manufacture Co. for US production of electric industrial vehicles.

Shares of Immunome Inc IMNM got a boost, shooting 93% to $42.90 after the company said its discovery engine has isolated potent antibodies capable of neutralizing several SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the South African Variant (B.1.351), in pseudovirus testing.

HighCape Capital Acquisition Corp. CAPA shares were also up, gaining 104% to $21.20 after the SPAC announced a merger with HighCape Capital Acquisition Quantum-Si.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Gaucho Group Holdings Inc VINO shares tumbled 18% to $5.23. The company recently announced pricing of $8 million public offering at $6 per share.

Shares of Code Chain New Continent Ltd CCNC were down 28% to $6.84 after the company priced its 4,166,666 share registered direct offering at $6 per share.

Eltek Ltd. ELTK was down, falling 23% to $6.20. Eltek said it sees preliminary FY20 sales of $36.7 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $61.06, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,776.10.

Silver traded down 1% Thursday to $27.03 while copper rose 1.9% to $3.8920.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.88%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.85% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.19%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.7%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 1.15%.

The Eurozone consumer confidence indicator increased by 0.7 points to a reading of -14.8 in February.

Economics

US initial jobless claims climbed to 861,000 in the week ended February 13, versus a revised figure of 848,000 in the prior week.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index fell to 23.1 in February from 26.5 in January.

Housing starts declined 6% to an annualized rate of 1580 thousand in January, while building permits climbed 10.4% to an annual rate of 1.881 million,

Import prices rose 1.4% in January, while export prices advanced 2.5%.

US natural-gas supplies dropped 237 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration reported.

US crude oil inventories dropped 7.258 million barrels in the week ended February 12, 2021, the Energy Information Administration said.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here