Nasdaq Dips Over 100 Points; Meta Earnings Miss Estimates

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than 100 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.55% to 32,020.44 while the NASDAQ fell 0.97% to 11,915.48. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.52% to 4,002.68.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose 1.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Sunnova Energy International Inc. NOVA, up 24% and Azure Power Global Limited AZRE up 13%.

In trading on Thursday, communication services shares fell 2.6%.

Top Headline

Meta Platforms, Inc. META reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Wednesday.

Daily active users for the company were 1.97 billion in the second quarter, up 3% year-over-year. Monthly active users for the company were 2.93 billion in the second quarter, up 1% year-over-year

Equities Trading UP

JAKKS Pacific, Inc. JAKK shares shot up 36% to $23.16 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results.

Shares of ToughBuilt Industries, Inc. TBLT got a boost, shooting 33% to $6.11 after the company entered into an agreement with Ace Hardware USA to sell 35 products across 5,500 stores.

TPI Composites, Inc. TPIC shares were also up, gaining 29% to $15.65. TPI Composites is expected to release its Q2 results after the market close on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2022.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bausch Health Companies Inc. BHC shares tumbled 46% to $4.7300.
Traders circulate July 14 CreditSights report 'Bausch Health faces a critically important patent ruling for Xifaxan in early August.'

Shares of Community Health Systems, Inc. CYH were down 39% to $3.1650 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 results. The company also guided 2022 EPS of $(2.55)-$(1.65).

Pathward Financial, Inc. CASH was down, falling 25% to $32.24 after the company reported Q3 results. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Pathward Financial from Outperform to Market Perform and lowered the price target from $67 to $45.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $97.07, while gold traded up 1.8% to $1,749.40.

Silver traded up 5.5% to $19.62 on Thursday while copper rose 1.1% to $3.4660.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1%. The German DAX gained 0.5%, French CAC 40 rose 0.7% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.4%.

Producer prices in France surged 1.3% month-over-month in June following a 0.3% decline in May. Retail sales in Spain rose 1% year-over-year in June, while unemployment rate dropped to 12.48% in the quarter ending June from 13.65% in the prior three-month period. UK car production rose 5.6% year-over-year to 72,946 units in June.

Economics

The US economy shrank an annualized 0.9% on quarter during the second quarter, compared to a 1.6% decline in the first quarter.

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 256,000 the week ended July 23rd, compared to market estimates of 253,000.

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 July 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 92,761,860 cases with around 1,053,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,959,320 cases and 526,210 deaths, while Brazil reported over 33,707,060 COVID-19 cases with 677,870 deaths. In total, there were at least 578,844,500 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,412,460 deaths.