Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; US Initial Jobless Claims Drop To 712,000

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.65% to 32,505.60 while the NASDAQ rose 1.74% to 13,295.95. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.90% to 3,933.77.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 29,154,660 cases with around 529,260 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,285,560 confirmed cases and 158,180 deaths, while Brazil reported over 11,202,300 COVID-19 cases with 270,650 deaths. In total, there were at least 118,119,330 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,621,980 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.


Leading and Lagging Sectors


Information technology shares rose 1.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CleanSpark, Inc. CLSK, up 14%, and Innodata Inc.. INOD, up 15%.


In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell by 0.3%.


Top Headline

US initial jobless claims declined to 712,000 for the first week of March from a revised reading of 754,000 in the previous week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 725,000.

 

Equities Trading UP


Entera Bio Ltd. ENTX shares shot up 219% to $5.10 after the company disclosed positive topline EB613 Phase 2 biomarker data.


Shares of Siebert Financial Corp. SIEB got a boost, shooting 34% to $5.74 following FY20 results. The company reported FY20 sales of $54.9 million, up from $28.6 million year over year.


Nova LifeStyle, Inc. NVFY shares were also up, gaining 145% to $5.87.

Check out these big movers of the day


Equities Trading DOWN

Celsius Holdings, Inc. CELH shares tumbled 29% to $42.96 after the company reported Q4 results

Shares of Just Energy Group Inc. JE were down 26% to $1.92. The company announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange have commenced delisting proceedings.

Enveric Biosciences, Inc. ENVB was down, falling 24% to $3.45. Enveric Biosciences shares jumped 55% on Wednesday in reaction to acquiring an exclusive, perpetual license for novel molecules from Diverse Biotech.

 

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $65.10, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,734.10.


Silver traded up 1.1% Thursday to $26.43 while copper rose 2% to $4.1120.


Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.2% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.1%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.8%.


Economics


US initial jobless claims declined to 712,000 for the latest week from a revised reading of 754,000 in the previous week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 725,000.


The number of job openings increased by 165,000 from the previous month to 6.917 million in January.


The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.


The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m.


The Treasury will auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m.

Check out the full economic calendar here

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