Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; US Jobless Claims Fall Last Week

U.S. stocks traded mixed this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 150 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.43% to 34,349.60 while the NASDAQ rose 0.37% to 13,940.29. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.08% to 4,477.39.

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Top Headline

US initial jobless claims fell by 5 thousand to 166 thousand in the week ended April 2nd. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 200 thousand.

Equities Trading UP

Momentus Inc. MNTS shares shot up 31% to $3.87 as the company signed multiple launch agreements with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), a Tesla CEO Elon Musk-led company.

Shares of System1, Inc. SST got a boost, shooting 26% to $25.16. The company on Monday reported Q4 and FY22 financials results.

Origin Agritech Limited SEED shares were also up, gaining 25% to $9.12 after the company announced it has signed purchase agreements to sell two feedstock companies a total 50,000 metric tons of its corn for RMB150 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aptinyx Inc. APTX shares tumbled 38% to $1.4450 after the company reported results from its Phase 2b study of NYX-2925 in painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy. The company reported NYX-2925 did not achieve the primary endpoint of the study.

Shares of Rite Aid Corporation RAD were down 17% to $6.97 after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock from Hold to Sell and lowered its price target from $16 to $1.

Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc. ADN was down, falling 12% to $3.20. Advent Technologies recently announced a definitive agreement with Hyundai Motor Company to use fuel cell technology in delivering green energy solutions to current high carbon applications.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $97.06, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,931.80.

Silver traded down 0.1% Thursday to $24.425 while copper fell 1% to $4.6920.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.7%. The German DAX gained 0.1%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.6%.

Retail sales in the Eurozone rose 0.3% from a month ago in February following a 0.2% increase in January. Industrial production in Germany rose 0.2% from a month ago in February, versus a revised 1.4% increase in January.

The Halifax house price index in the UK rose 11% year-over-year in March, while labor productivity in the country rose 1.3% on quarter during the last three months of 2021.

Economics

US initial jobless claims fell by 5 thousand to 166 thousand in the week ended April 2nd. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 200 thousand.

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 Chicago President Charles Evans will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for February will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams is set to speak at 4:05 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 81,950,240 cases with around 1,010,530 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,031,950 cases and 521,560 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,067,240 COVID-19 cases with 660,780 deaths. In total, there were at least 495,503,030 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,192,340 deaths.