Mid-Morning Market Update: US Markets Open Lower As Initial Jobless Claims Rise

U.S. stocks opened on a weak note this morning following the release of weekly jobless claims data.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.34% to 35,110.56 while the NASDAQ fell 0.45% to 14,377.17. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.23% to 4,591.66.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 0.7% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, communication services shares fell 0.8%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims increased by 14 thousand to 202 thousand in the week ended March 26th. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting a reading of 197 thousand.

Equities Trading UP

Longeveron Inc. LGVN shares shot up 35% to $9.07 after the company announced the publication of results from a Phase 1 trial testing Lomecel-B on patients with mild Alzheimer's disease in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Shares of RCM Technologies, Inc. RCMT got a boost, shooting 22% to $ 10.43 after the company reported Q4 results.

Icosavax, Inc. ICVX shares were also up, gaining 27% to $6.78 following Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Oxbridge Re Holdings Limited OXBR shares tumbled 26% to $5.17 after the company reported results for the fourth quarter.

Shares of Clarus Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. CRXT were down 27% to $1.5104 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

Motorsport Games Inc. MSGM was down, falling 24% to $1.5599 after the company reported Q4 financial results. Canaccord Genuity and Benchmark downgraded the stock.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.6% to $103.96, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,943.60.

Silver traded up 0.4% Thursday to $25.045 while copper rose 0.1% to $4.7530.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.5%. The German DAX dropped 0.6%, French CAC 40 fell 0.7% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.2%.

Economics

US initial jobless claims increased by 14 thousand to 202 thousand in the week ended March 26th. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting a reading of 197 thousand.

Personal income rose 0.5% from a month ago in February, while personal spending rose 0.2% month-over-month. The personal consumption expenditure price index surged 6.4% year-over-year in February.

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. ET.

Data on farm prices for February will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,686,620 cases with around 1,005,050 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,023,210 cases and 521,130 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,882,390 COVID-19 cases with 659,290 deaths. In total, there were at least 485,724,930 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,158,100 deaths.