US Stocks Open Lower; Dow Tumbles 300 Points

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 300 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.05% to 32,921.39 while the NASDAQ fell 1.11% to 10,342.65. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.00% to 3,814.55.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Scorpio Tankers Inc. STNG, up 4%, and CVR Energy, Inc. CVI, up 5%.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares dropped by 2.1%.

Top Headline

The US trade deficit shrank to $61.5 billion in November, compared to market expectations of a $73 billion gap.

Equities Trading UP

• AMTD Digital Inc. HKD shares shot up 94% to $19.36.
• Shares of NovoCure Limited NVCR got a boost, shooting 48% to $104.12 after the company announced the LUNAR study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival over standard therapies alone.
• Zai Lab Limited ZLAB shares were also up, gaining 43% to $48.65 after the company announced the LUNAR study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival over standard therapies alone.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Silvergate Capital Corporation SI shares tumbled 47% to $11.70 after the company announced select preliminary Q4 financial metrics and provided a business update. The company said it is reducing headcount by 40%.
• Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY were down 23% to $1.8499. The company said it will miss its 10-Q filing deadline for the quarter ending Nov 26, 2022 and has also concluded that there is substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.
• Nuwellis, Inc. NUWE was down, falling 21% to $8.61 after the company announced passage of a warrant proposal.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $72.89 while gold traded down 1.1% at $1,839.40.

Silver traded down 2.1% to $23.46 on Thursday while copper rose 1.8% to $3.8090.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.8% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.4%. The German DAX dropped 0.4%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.1%.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK services PMI came in at 49.9 in December compared to a preliminary reading of 50.0, while new car registrations in the country climbed 18.3% year-over-year to 128,462 units in December.

The S&P Global Eurozone construction PMI fell to 42.6 in December versus 43.6 a month ago. The S&P Global France construction PMI increased to 41 in December from 40.7 in the prior month, while German construction PMI came in at 41.7 in December versus 41.5 in November. The trade surplus in Germany narrowed to €11.1 billion in November from €11.3 billion in the year-ago period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Thursday, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.25%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index adding 1.01%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.40% during the session.

The consumer confidence index in Japan rose to 30.3 in December from November's reading of 28.6. The Caixin China General Services PMI rose to 48.0 in December from November’s reading of 46.7, while S&P Global Hong Kong PMI rose to 49.6 from 48.7. The Judo Bank Australian services PMI fell to 47.3 in December from 47.6 in the previous month.

Economics

• Private businesses in the US added 235,000 jobs in December.
• US-based employers reported 43,651 job cuts during the month of December.
• The US trade deficit shrank to $61.5 billion in November, compared to market expectations of a $73 billion gap.
• US jobless claims fell to 204,000 in the week ending December 31, compared to the previous week's revised reading of 223,000.
• The S&P Global services PMI was revised higher to 44.7 in December from a preliminary reading of 44.4.

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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 102,963,370 cases with around 1,120,040 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,680,400 cases and 530,700 deaths, while France reported over 39,370,280 COVID-19 cases with 162,500 deaths. In total, there were at least 666,887,270 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,704,320 deaths.