U.S. Stocks Trade Lower; Weekly Jobless Claims Drop To 250,000

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 90 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.28% to 33,884.72 while the NASDAQ fell 0.26% to 12,904.48. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.16% to 4,267.04.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Newpark Resources, Inc. NR, up 13% and Hallador Energy Company HNRG up 7%.

In trading on Thursday, health care shares fell by 0.7%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims dropped by 2,000 to 250,000 the week ended August 13th, compared to market expectations of 265,000.

Equities Trading UP

• Wolfspeed, Inc. WOLF shares shot up 25% to $106.78 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results. Additionally, multiple firms raised their price target on the stock.
• Shares of WeTrade Group, Inc. WETG got a boost, shooting 21% to $8.65. WeTrade Group said, 'WeTrade and Zhixun are ready to launch an in-depth cooperative sales promotion of Zhixun's disinfectant.'
• Forza X1, Inc. FRZA shares were also up, gaining 23% to $8.25 after the company, along with OneWater Marine, announced the companies have entered into a strategic partnership to create a distribution channel for the Forza X1's integrated electric sports boats.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Blue Water Vaccines, Inc. BWV shares tumbled 40% to $4.52 on possible profit taking after the stock surged on Wednesday.
• Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY were down 26% to $17.03 following a Form 144 filing by RC Ventures, which suggested the firm proposed to sell 7.78 million common shares and certain call options. Additionally, Wedbush downgraded the stock to Underperform.
• Kirkland's, Inc. KIRK was down, falling 22% to $4.9999. The company is scheduled to report Q2 results on August 30, 2022.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.8% to $89.67, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,778.70

Silver traded down 0.1% to $19.725 on Thursday while copper rose 1.5% to $3.6385.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.1%. The German DAX gained 0.3%, French CAC 40 rose 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.7%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone was confirmed at a fresh record high of 8.9% in July, versus 8.6% in June, while construction output in the Eurozone rose 0.1% year-over-year in June.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims dropped by 2,000 to 250,000 the week ended August 13th, compared to market expectations of 265,000.
• The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index climbed to 6.2 in August from -12.3 in July.
• Existing home sales in the US fell 5.9% to an annual rate of 4.81 million in July.
• The index of leading economic indicators fell 0.4% for July.
• 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 Kansas City President Esther George is set to speak at 1:20 p.m. ET.
• Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will speak at 1:45 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 95,065,400 cases with around 1,064,200 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,298,860 cases and 527,200 deaths, while France reported over 34,276,080 COVID-19 cases with 153,330 deaths. In total, there were at least 598,289,170 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,464,140 deaths.