Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; US Inflation Rate Surges To Fresh 40-Year High

U.S. stocks opened on a weak note this morning, with the Dow Jones falling more than 300 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.11% to 32,915.76 while the NASDAQ fell 1.28% to 13,085.36. The S&P also fell, dropping, 1.06% to 4,232.60.

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Top Headline

Annual inflation rate in the US accelerated to 7.9% in February, recording the highest level since January 1982. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting 7.9% increase in consumer prices.

Equities Trading UP

Enservco Corporation ENSV shares shot up 50% to $4.5200 after dropping 28% on Wednesday.

Shares of Indonesia Energy Corporation Limited INDO got a boost, shooting 32% to $44.30. The company announced that it commenced drilling of two back-to-back production wells at the Kruh block.

Eco Wave Power Global AB WAVE shares were also up, gaining 28% to $6.42 following a 15% decline on Wednesday.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Sunshine Biopharma, Inc SBFM shares tumbled 34% to $2.5250 after the company announced pricing of an $8 million private placement at-the-market. The stock is also possibly trading lower on profit taking after it rallied yesterday.

Shares of Fossil Group, Inc. FOSL were down 28% to $10.42 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

ACM Research, Inc. ACMR was down, falling 22% to $63.56.
ACM Research recently reported a 3-for-1 stock split.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.8% to $112.84, while gold traded up 1% to $2,007.80.

Silver traded up 1.2% Thursday to $26.115 while copper rose 1.2% to $4.6290.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.3%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.2%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1%. The German DAX dropped 2.4%, French CAC 40 fell 2.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 3%.

Industrial production in Italy fell 3.4% from a month ago in January, while industrial producer prices surged 32.9% year-over-year in January. Payroll employment in the France’s private sector increased by 0.6% to 20.06 million in the fourth quarter.

Economics

Annual inflation rate in the US accelerated to 7.9% in February, recording the highest level since January 1982. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting 7.9% increase in consumer prices.

US initial jobless claims rose by 11,000 to 227,000 in the latest week.

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.

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

The U.S. Treasury budget statement for February will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET. Analysts expect a $124.0 deficit in February.

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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 81,064,100 cases with around 989,470 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,980,060 cases and 515,490 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,194,040 COVID-19 cases with 653,580 deaths. In total, there were at least 451,963,790 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,045,330 deaths.