Nasdaq Down Over 100 Points; Procter & Gamble Posts In-Line Earnings

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones dropping around 300 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.92% to 32,990.29 while the NASDAQ fell 1.32% to 10,812.10. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.07% to 3,886.83.
Check This Out: Ethereum Drops Below This Key Level; Gala Becomes Top Loser

Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 0.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included So-Young International Inc. SY, up 8%, and HUYA Inc. HUYA, up 8%.
• In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares dipped by 2.1%.
•  

Top Headline

Procter & Gamble Co PG reported in-line earnings for its second quarter on Thursday.

The company reported a second-quarter FY23 sales decline of 1% year-on-year to $20.77 billion, marginally beating the consensus of $20.73 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.59 was in-line with the analyst consensus.

P&G raised FY23 organic sales outlook from 3% - 5% to a growth of 4% - 5%.

Equities Trading UP

• NeuroSense Therapeutics Ltd. NRSN shares shot up 94% to $2.42 after the company reported final results from its Alzheimer's biomarker study.
• Shares of Genius Group Limited GNS got a boost, shooting 221% to $1.72. Genius Group authorized issue of special dividend and appointed Timothy Murphy to lead Illegal Trading Task Force.
• XORTX Therapeutics Inc. XRTX shares were also up, gaining 28% to $1.00 after the company announced topline results from the XRX-OXY-101 clinical trial.
•  

Equities Trading DOWN

• Surmodics, Inc. SRDX shares tumbled 33% to $25.18 after the company received a letter from the FDA related to its premarket approval (PMA) application for the SurVeil drug-coated balloon (DCB). In the letter, the FDA indicated that the application is not currently approvable while providing specific guidance on a path forward..
• Shares of TC Biopharm (Holdings) Plc TCBP were down 20% to $5.02 after the company announced it received a notice of non-compliance with NASDAQ's Listing Rule 5550(b)(1).
• Jupiter Wellness, Inc. JUPW was down, falling 40% to $0.6039 after the company announced a $4.1 million registered direct offering and private placement.

Also Check This Out: Myomo, Enzo Biochem And These 2 Stocks Under $2 Insiders Are Aggressively Buying

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3% to $79.74 while gold traded up 0.7% at $1,921.20.

Silver traded up 0.3% to $23.725 on Thursday while copper fell 0.4% to $4.2190.

Stocks of crude oil in the US rose by 7.615 million barrels in the latest week, the American Petroleum Institute said Wednesday. Stocks of crude oil in the US increased by 8.408 million barrels in the week ended January 13, versus market estimates of a 0.593 million declined, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.42%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.97% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.45%. The German DAX declined 1.53% French CAC 40 dropped 1.74% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.59%.

The current account surplus in the Eurozone narrowed to EUR 13.4 billion in November compared to EUR 13.8 billion in the year-ago month. Spanish trade deficit narrowed to EUR 3.31 billion in November from EUR 4.21 billion in the year-ago month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.12%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.49%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.44%.

Japan recorded a trade deficit of JPY 1,448.5 billion in December, wider from JPY 603.1 billion in the year-ago period. Hong Kong’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% during the three months ending December 2022, versus 3.7% in the prior September-November period. The unemployment rate in Australia came in steady at 3.5% in December.

Economics

• US initial jobless claims dropped by 15,000 from the prior week to 190,000 in the week ending January 14, the lowest in four months. However, analysts were expecting claims to reach 214,000.
• Housing starts in the US fell 1.4% to an annualized rate of 1.382 million in December.
• Building permits declined 1.6% from a month ago to an annual rate of 1.33 million in December.
• The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index increased to -8.9 in January versus a revised reading of -13.7 in the previous month.
• Stocks of crude oil in the US increased by 8.408 million barrels in the week ended January 13, versus market estimates of a 0.593 million declined, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Now Read This: Investor Optimism Declines As Nasdaq Snaps 7-Day Win Streak

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 103,701,160 cases with around 1,127,050 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,681,880 cases and 530,720 deaths, while France reported over 39,467,280 COVID-19 cases with 163,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 672,336,840 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,736,630 deaths.