Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; US Economy Contracts 1.4% In Q1

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning with the Dow Jones gaining 300 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.45% to 33,450.24 while the NASDAQ rose 0.88% to 12,598.27. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.84% to 4,219.18.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 1.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Meta Platforms, Inc. FB, up 12% and VEON Ltd. VEON up 9%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares dipped by 0.8%.

Top Headline

The US economy contracted an annualized 1.4% on quarter during the first three months of the year, following a 6.9% growth in the previous quarter. Analysts, on the other hand, were expecting for a 1.1% growth.

Equities Trading UP

T Stamp Inc. IDAI shares shot up 205% to $6.41. Trust Stamp reported the launch of its Biometric Multi-Factor Authentication (Biometric MFATM) solution.

Shares of Swvl Holdings Corp. SWVL got a boost, shooting 50% to $10.11 after the company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Zeelo.

SQZ Biotechnologies Company SQZ shares were also up, gaining 30% to $3.5915 after the company announced it has received an FDA Fast Track Designation for the company's lead cell therapy candidate SQZ-PBMC-HPV.

Equities Trading DOWN

Teladoc Health, Inc. TDOC shares tumbled 47% to $29.93 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 sales results and issued FY22 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Shares of Align Technology, Inc. ALGN were down 22% to $279.56 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results.

JE Cleantech Holdings Limited JCSE was down, falling 28% to $3.6803 after dipping 68% on Wednesday.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3% to $102.36, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,891.10.

Silver traded down 1.2% Thursday to $23.18 while copper fell 1.2% to $4.4235.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 1.1%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.3%. The German DAX climbed 0.9%, French CAC 40 rose 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.5%.

Spanish annual inflation rate fell to 8.4% in April from around 40-year high level of 9.8% in March, while unemployment rate rose to 13.65% in the first quarter from 13.33% in the previous three-month period. UK car production dropped 33.4% year-over-year to 76,900 units in March.

Economics

The US economy contracted an annualized 1.4% on quarter during the first three months of the year, following a 6.9% growth in the previous quarter. Analysts, on the other hand, were expecting for a 1.1% growth.

US initial jobless claims dropped by 5,000 in the week ended April 23rd, from a revised reading of 185,000 in the prior period.

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 Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for April will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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

The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 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 82,888,240 cases with around 1,019,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,068,790 cases and 522,690 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,399,000 COVID-19 cases with 663,160 deaths. In total, there were at least 511,620,850 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,253,660 deaths.