Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Tumbles Over 200 Points; Five Prime Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.07% to 30,935.46 while the NASDAQ fell 1.64% to 12,784.21. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.13% to 3,776.60.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 28,761,390 cases with around 518,450 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,156,920 confirmed cases and 157,430 deaths, while Brazil reported over 10,718,630 COVID-19 cases with 259,270 deaths. In total, there were at least 115,273,110 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,561,730 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.


Leading and Lagging Sectors


Energy shares rose 1.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included W&T Offshore, Inc. WTI, up 12%, and Centennial Resource Development, Inc. CDEV, up 15%.


In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell 2.7%.


Top Headline

The Kroger Co. KR reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.

Kroger posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.81 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.69 per share. The company reported sales of $$30.70 billion, versus expectations of $30.86 billion.

Kroger said it sees FY21 adjusted EPS of $2.75-$2.95, versus analysts’ estimates of $3.36 per share.

 

Equities Trading UP


Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. FPRX shares shot up 78% to $37.79 after Amgen announced plans to acquire the company for $1.9 billion.


Shares of Severn Bancorp, Inc. SVBI got a boost, shooting 28% to $10.71. Shore Bancshares and Severn Bancorp reported a merger agreement.


Burlington Stores, Inc. BURL shares were also up, gaining 13% to $287.29 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results.

Check out these big movers of the day


Equities Trading DOWN

The Dixie Group, Inc. DXYN shares tumbled 38% to $3.37. Dixie Group reported FY20 sales of $315.9 million down from $374.6 million year over year.

Shares of Cohen & Company Inc. COHN were down 28% to $29.63. Cohen shares climbed 134% on Wednesday after the company reported a strong rise in Q4 earnings and sales.

Schrödinger, Inc. SDGR was down, falling 26% to $73.23 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results. The company also issued FY21 sales guidance below analyst estimates.


Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 4.2% to $63.86, while gold traded down 1.4% to $1,692.30


Silver traded down 4.3% Thursday to $25.25 while copper fell 5.5% to $3.9150.


Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.37%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.3% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.17%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.01%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.37% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.20%.

The Eurozone construction PMI rose to 45.0 in February from 44.1 in the earlier month. The IHS Markit Germany construction PMI declined to 41 in February from 46.6 in January, while France construction PMI increased to 44 in February from 39.5.


Economics


US initial jobless claims rose to 745,000 in the week ended February 27, from the prior week's revised level of 736,000.


Nonfarm labor productivity declined by an annualized 4.2% in the last quarter, while unit labor costs increased an annualized 6%.


US factory orders rose 2.6% in January.


US natural gas supplies fell 98 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Check out the full economic calendar here

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Posted In: EarningsNewsPenny StocksEurozoneCommoditiesSmall CapGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMid-Afternoon Market Update
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