US Stocks Flat, Crude Oil Rises 2%

U.S. stocks traded almost flat in volatile trading on Thursday following the release of jobless claims data.

The Dow traded up 0.04% to 31,592.92 while the NASDAQ fell 0.07% to 11,783.70. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.04% to 3,981.65.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 0.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMLX, up 56% and LifeStance Health Group, Inc. LFST up 26%.

In trading on Thursday, communication services shares fell by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Unemployment insurance filings fell for a fourth straight week to the lowest levels since May showing continued strength in U.S. labor demand. Jobless claims fell 6,000 for the week ending Sept. 3 to 222,000 from a downwardly revised level of 228,000 in the prior week, according to data the Labor Department released on Thursday. The number came in below average economist estimates of 240,000.

Equities Trading UP

• ShiftPixy, Inc. PIXY shares shot up 98% to $22.15 after the company announced plans to spin-off ShiftPixy Labs and dividend its digital securities to shareholders.
• Shares of Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMLX got a boost, shooting 54% to $27.65 after the FDA Advisory Committee voted that available evidence of effectiveness is sufficient to support approval of AMX0035 for the treatment of ALS. Citigroup and SVB Leerink raised their price targets.
• Asana, Inc. ASAN shares were also up, gaining 22% to $23.28 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and issued a strong sales guidance. RBC Capital and Citigroup raised their price targets on the stock.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Bilibili Inc. BILI shares tumbled 17% to $19.65 following Q2 results.
• Shares of MasterCraft Boat Holdings, Inc. MCFT were down 15% to $20.18. The company posted upbeat quarterly earnings, but issued weak FY23 forecast. MasterCraft Boat also sold its NauticStar business to Iconic Marine Group.
• Erasca, Inc. ERAS was down, falling 16% to $7.89. Erasca announced preliminary Phase 1/1b monotherapy data for ERK1/2 inhibitor ERAS-007 and SHP2 inhibitor ERAS-601 in BRAF-driven and RAS/MAPK-altered solid tumors.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2% to $83.58, while gold traded down 0.6% at $1,717.20.

Silver traded up 0.7% to $18.385 on Thursday while copper rose 2.8% to $3.5275.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.50%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.33%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.78%. The German DAX dropped 0.09%, French CAC 40 rose 0.33% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.88%.

The ECB has raised the interest rate by 75 bps to 1.25%, in line with the expectations. It hiked the Deposit Facility rate by 75 bps to 0.75%, higher than the expected 0.50%. Its Marginal Lending Facility rate now stands at 1.50%.

France recorded a current account deficit of EUR 5.3 billion in July versus a revised EUR 1.5 billion gap in the prior month, while trade gap widened to €14.54 billion in July versus a revised €13.08 billion in the previous month. Payroll employment in France’s private sector increased by 0.5% to 20.72 million in the second quarter.

Economics

• Unemployment insurance filings fell for a fourth straight week to the lowest levels since May showing continued strength in U.S. labor demand. Jobless claims fell 6,000 for the week ending Sept. 3 to 222,000 from a downwardly revised level of 228,000 in the prior week, according to data the Labor Department released on Thursday. The number came in below average economist estimates of 240,000.
• U.S. natural-gas supplies climbed 54 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.
• U.S. crude-oil inventories surged 8.8 million barrels last week, the EIA said.
• Data on consumer credit for July will be released at 3:00 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 96,870,370 cases with around 1,074,170 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,478,630 cases and 528,090 deaths, while France reported over 34,643,240 COVID-19 cases with 154,370 deaths. In total, there were at least 612,184,990 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,509,870 deaths.