Crude Oil Down 1%; SkyWater Technology Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 250 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded down 0.79% to 33,975.65 while the NASDAQ fell 0.59% to 11,821.20. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.63% to 4,111.05.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares fell by just 0.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included FLEX LNG Ltd. FLNG, up 7%, and Ardmore Shipping Corporation ASC, up 7%.
• In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares dipped by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Consumer prices in the US rose 0.5% month-over-month in January, the most in three months, coming in-line with the market expectations. The annual inflation rate in the US eased to 6.4% in January from 6.5% in December.

Equities Trading UP

• Boxlight Corporation BOXL shares shot up 25% to $0.4999. Boxlight authorized repurchase program of up to $15 million in shares of Class A common stock.
• Shares of SkyWater Technology, Inc. SKYT got a boost, shooting 20% to $13.74 after the company posted better-than-expected Q4 results.
• Amesite Inc. AMST shares were also up, gaining 105% to $0.5760 after the company announced GPT-3 powered functionality to its AI toolkit for customers and users.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Top Ships Inc. TOPS shares tumbled 46% to $0.8924. TOP Ships priced $13.6 million registered direct offering at $1.35 per unit.
• Shares of Soligenix, Inc. SNGX were down 26% to $4.30 after the company announced it received a refusal to file letter from the FDA for its HyBryte new drug application in the treatment of cutaneous T-Cell lymphoma.
• Mobiquity Technologies, Inc. MOBQ was down, falling 31% to $0.3646. Mobiquity Technologies reported pricing of $3.75 million public offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.3% to $79.09 while gold traded up 0.3% at $1,868.70.

Silver traded down 0.2% to $21.815 on Tuesday while copper rose 0.7% to $4.0875.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.5%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.44% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.95%. The German DAX climbed 0.48% French CAC 40 surged 0.66% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.62%.

The unemployment rate in the UK came in unchanged at 3.7% in the three months to December, while average weekly earnings, including bonuses in the UK, rose by 5.9% year-over-year to GBP 630. Labor productivity in the UK rose 0.3% on quarter in the three months to December.

The annual wholesale price inflation in Germany fell to a 20-month low level of 10.6% in January compared to 12.8% in the prior month, while unemployment rate in France declined to 7.2% in the fourth quarter.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.64%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 0.24% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.28%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex surged 1%.

The annual wholesale price inflation rate in India fell to 4.73% in January from 4.95% a month ago, while passenger vehicles sales in the country climbed by 26.7% month-over-month to 298,093 units in January. Industrial production in Japan rose by 0.3% month-over-month in December, while the country’s economy expanded by 0.2% quarter-over-quarter in Q4.

Australia's NAB business confidence index climbed 6 points to a reading of 6 for January, while Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment declined 6.9% to 78.5 during February.

Economics

• The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose to 90.3 in January versus a six-month low level of 89.9 in December.
• Consumer prices in the US rose 0.5% month-over-month in January, the most in three months, coming in-line with the market expectations.
• The annual inflation rate in the US eased to 6.4% in January from 6.5% in December.

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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 104,787,050 cases with around 1,140,200 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,684,270 cases and 530,750 deaths, while France reported over 39,565,480 COVID-19 cases with 164,580 deaths. In total, there were at least 677,746,160 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,783,450 deaths.