Wall Street Mixed At Open; US Weekly Jobless Claims Decline

U.S. stocks traded mixed this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 80 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.24% to 32,740.88 while the NASDAQ fell 0.58% to 11,313.95. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.30% to 3,939.53.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Consumer staples shares rose 0.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Utz Brands, Inc. UTZ, up 10%, and Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. SFM, up 12%.
• In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell by 1.4%.

Top Headline

US jobless claims fell by 2,000 from the prior week to 190,000 for the week ending Feb. 25, compared to market estimates of 195,000.

Equities Trading UP

• BioRestorative Therapies, Inc. BRTX shares shot up 32% to $3.6900 after the company announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a notice of allowance for a patent application related to the Company's metabolic ThermoStem program.
• Shares of OncoSec Medical Incorporated ONCS got a boost, shooting 29% to $2.6350. OncoSec Medical shares jumped around 89% on Wednesday after the company requested the withdrawal of its registration statement, saying it has opted not to pursue the offering at this time.
• Frontdoor, Inc. FTDR shares were also up, gaining 19% to $33.24 after the company posted Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• ZimVie Inc. ZIMV shares tumbled 46% to $5.61 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 adjusted EPS and sales results and issued FY23 adjusted EPS and net sales guidance below estimates.
• Shares of Silvergate Capital Corporation SI were down 39% to $8.32 after the company delayed the filing of its Form 10-K with the SEC.
• Cardlytics, Inc. CDLX was down, falling 25% to $3.98 after the company posted downbeat Q4 sales and issued weak sales forecast for the first quarter.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $77.96 while gold traded down 0.4% at $1,837.90.

Silver traded down 1.3% to $20.82 on Thursday while copper fell 2.6% to $4.0530.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.01%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.13% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.15%. The German DAX declined 0.43% French CAC 40 fell 0.02% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.07%.

France’s government budget deficit increased to EUR 21.2 billion in January from EUR 16 billion in the year-ago period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.06%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 0.92% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.05%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.8%.

Retail sales in Hong Kong rose 5.1% year-over-year in January following a revised 0.6% drop in the prior month. The consumer confidence index in Japan rose to 31.1 in February from 31.0 in the prior month.

Economics

• US jobless claims fell by 2,000 from the prior week to 190,000 for the week ending Feb. 25, compared to market estimates of 195,000.
• Unit labor costs rose by an annualized 3.2% in the fourth quarter, while nonfarm business sector labor productivity growth was revised lower to 1.7% in the quarter.

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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 105,345,990 cases with around 1,146,140 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,686,870 cases and 530,770 deaths, while France reported over 39,626,750 COVID-19 cases with 164,980 deaths. In total, there were at least 680,206,720 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,801,720 deaths.