Nasdaq Tumbles 250 Points; Crude Oil Falls Sharply

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping over 250 points on Thursday

The Dow traded down 0.55% to 31,336.70 while the NASDAQ fell 2.20% to 11,556.15. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.16% to 3,909.03.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Empresa Distribuidora y Comercializadora Norte Sociedad Anónima EDN, up 4% and Cadiz Inc. CDZI up 3%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares tumbled by 2.8%.

Top Headline

The ISM manufacturing PMI fell to 52.8 in August from 53 in June.

Equities Trading UP

• Forma Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. FMTX shares shot up 50% to $20.06 after Novo Nordisk announced it will acquire the company for $20 per share in cash.
• Shares of ShiftPixy, Inc. PIXY got a boost, shooting 132% to $32.54. ShiftPixy announced a 1-for-100 reverse stock split.
• Nutanix, Inc. NTNX shares were also up, gaining 26% to $21.86 after the company reported better-than-expected sales results for its fourth quarter and issued strong revenue forecast.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Semtech Corporation SMTC shares tumbled 31% to $31.86 after the company issued Q3 sales guidance below analyst estimates. Cowen & Co. and Oppenheimer also downgraded the stock.
• Shares of Okta, Inc. OKTA were down 36% to $58.62 after the company reported Q2 earnings results and issued Q3 and FY23 financial guidance. Several analysts also lowered their price targets on the stock.
• American Virtual Cloud Technologies, Inc. AVCT was down, falling 49% to $0.2360 after the company announced an equity distribution agreement to offer and sell up to $14.7 million shares of common stock.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.5% to $86.46, while gold traded down 1.1% at $1,707.00.

Silver traded down 1.2% to $17.66 on Thursday while copper fell 3.1% to $3.4085.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.8%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.86%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.02%. The German DAX dropped 1.6%, French CAC 40 fell 1.48% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.19%.

The unemployment rate in the Eurozone dropped to a record low of 6.6% in July from revised 6.7% in the prior month, while Eurozone manufacturing PMI was revised lower to 49.6 in August from an initial reading of 49.7.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 47.3 in August versus a preliminary reading of 46, while French manufacturing PMI climbed to 50.6 in August from a preliminary estimate of 49. The S&P Global/BME German manufacturing PMI was revised lower to 49.1 in August versus a preliminary level of 49.8, while Italian manufacturing PMI declined to 48 in August from 48.5 a month ago.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5 thousand to 232 thousand in the week ended August 27th.
• Non-farm labor productivity declined an annualized 4.1% in the second quarter, while unit labor costs rose by 10.2%.
• The S&P Global US manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 51.5 in August from a preliminary reading of 51.3.
• The ISM manufacturing PMI fell to 52.8 in August from 53 in June.
• U.S. construction spending dropped 0.4% from the prior month to an annual rate of $1.78 billion in July.
• U.S. natural-gas supplies climbed 61 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.
• Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Check out this: US Stocks End August On Weak Note Amid Low Volatility

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 96,347,970 cases with around 1,071,420 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,436,330 cases and 527,910 deaths, while France reported over 34,529,200 COVID-19 cases with 154,090 deaths. In total, there were at least 608,296,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,496,480 deaths.