U.S. Markets Open Higher; Jobless Claims Drop To 229,000

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 200 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.67% to 30,686.05 while the NASDAQ rose 0.83% to 11,144.74. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.74% to 3,787.77.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 1.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Valneva SE VALN, up 25% and MSP Recovery, Inc. MSPR up 19%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares tumbled by 0.5%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims declined by 2,000 to 229,000 in the week ended June 18th, compared to market estimates of 227,000.

Equities Trading UP

F-star Therapeutics, Inc. FSTX shares shot up 59% to $6.30 after Sino Biopharmaceutical's invoX Pharma announced it will acquire the company for $7.12 per share. The acquisition values F-star at approximately $161 million.

Shares of Phoenix Motor Inc. PEV got a boost, shooting 28% to $7.45. Phoenix Motor recently reported closing of $15,750,000 initial public offering.

Valneva SE VALN shares were also up, gaining 24% to $30.71. Valneva received positive CHMP opinion for marketing authorization of its inactivated Covid-19 vaccine candidate in Europe.

Equities Trading DOWN

Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc. GROV shares tumbled 16% to $6.42. Grove Collaborative Holdings’ 10% owner Richard Sir Branson recently acquired a total of 19,394,024 shares at an average price of $10.00.

Shares of Revlon, Inc. REV were down 14% to $7.02 on continued volatility following the company's recent bankruptcy filing.

AeroClean Technologies, Inc. AERC was down, falling 13% to $12.90.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $105.61, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,846.40.

Silver traded up 0.2% to $21.47 on Thursday while copper fell 2.6% to $3.8435.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.7%. The German DAX dropped 1.6%, French CAC 40 fell 0.7% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.7%.

The S&P Global Eurozone manufacturing PMI declined to 52 in June from 54.6 in May, while services PMI fell to 52.8 in June from 56.1. The S&P Global France services PMI fell to 54.4 in June from 58.3 in May, while manufacturing PMI dropped to a 19-month low of 51 in June.

German manufacturing PMI declined to a 23-month low of 52 in June, while services PMI slipped to 52.4 from 55. The UK’s composite PMI came in at 53.1 in June, unchanged from May.

Economics

US initial jobless claims declined by 2,000 to 229,000 in the week ended June 18th, compared to market estimates of 227,000.

The current account deficit increased to a record high of $291.4 billion in the first quarter from a revised $224.8 billion in the prior period.

The S&P Global services PMI declined to 51.6 in June from 53.4 in May, while manufacturing PMI dropped to 52.4 from 57.

Fed chief Jerome Powell is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee at 10:00 a.m. ET.

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 EIA’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for June is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.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 88,443,390 cases with around 1,039,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,347,590 cases and 524,940 deaths, while Brazil reported over 31,894,500 COVID-19 cases with 669,610 deaths. In total, there were at least 546,714,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,345,980 deaths.