Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; U.S. Jobless Claims Fall To 215,000

U.S. stocks traded mixed on Thursday following the release of several economic reports.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.21% to 33,963.92 while the NASDAQ fell 0.55% to 13,676.83. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.02% to 4,387.56.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares climbed by 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included ReNew Energy Global plc RNW, up 9% and Empresa Distribuidora y Comercializadora Norte Sociedad Anónima EDN up 4%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

Best Buy Co., Inc. BBY reported in-line earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Best Buy posted quarterly earnings of $2.73 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $2.73 per shares. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $16.36 billion, missing analysts’ of $16.59 billion.

Best Buy said it expects FY23 EPS of $8.85 to $9.15 and sales of $49.3 billion to $50.8 billion. The company raised its quarterly dividend from $0.70 to $0.88 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Indonesia Energy Corporation Limited INDO shares shot up 50% to $21.75 after jumping around 35% on Wednesday.

Shares of Rimini Street, Inc. RMNI got a boost, shooting 27% to $5.74 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 sales results and announced a stock repurchase plan of up to $15 million.

Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc. EOSE shares were also up, gaining 27% to $3.3186. Eos Energy Enterprises Chief Financial Officer Randall Gonzales acquired a total of 43,500 shares at an average price of $2.75.

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Equities Trading DOWN

NuCana plc NCNA shares tumbled 56% to $1.2888 after the company announced it discontinued its late-stage biliary tract cancer drug trial.

Shares of Rush Street Interactive, Inc. RSI were down 21% to $8.06 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. CNSL was down, falling 19% to $5.93 after the company reported results for its fourth quarter.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.4% to $113.23, while gold traded up 0.8% to $1,936.90.

Silver traded up 1.2% Thursday to $25.48 while copper rose 1.7% to $4.7450.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.6%. The German DAX dropped 0.7%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.6%.

The IHS Markit Eurozone services PMI was revised lower to 55.5 in February from a preliminary reading of 55.8, while composite PMI was revised lower to 55.5 in February from a preliminary level of 55.8. Italy’s services PMI climbed to 52.8 in February, while unemployment rate declined to 8.8% in January.

Germany’s services PMI was revised lower to 55.8 in February from a preliminary estimate of 56.6, while French services PMI fell to 55.5 in February from preliminary estimate of 57.9. The IHS Markit Spain services PMI climbed to 56.6 in February from 46.6 a month ago.

Economics

Job cuts announced by US-based companies dropped to 15,245 in February from 19,064 in January.

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 18,000 to 215,000 in the week ended February 26th. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 225,000.

Nonfarm labor productivity increased an annualized 6.6% in the fourth quarter, while unit labor costs nonfarm business sector rose an annualized 0.9%.

The IHS Markit services PMI was revised lower to 56.5 in February from a preliminary reading of 56.7, while composite PMI was revised lower to 55.9 in February.

U.S. factory orders rose 1.4% for January.

The ISM services PMI dropped for a third month to 56.5 in February from 59.9 in January.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin is set to speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 80,770,600 cases with around 979,720 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,945,160 cases and 514,410 deaths, while Brazil reported over 28,842,160 COVID-19 cases with 650,050 deaths. In total, there were at least 440,878,050 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,994,750 deaths.