Dow Rises 100 Points; Macy's Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.31% to 32,764.50 while the NASDAQ fell 0.49% to 11,324.28. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.21% to 3,943.00.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Utilities shares rose 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Enel Chile S.A. ENIC, up 2%, and Korea Electric Power Corporation KEP, up 1%.
• In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell by 1.2%.

Top Headline

Macy's, Inc. M reported better-than-expected Q4 adjusted EPS and sales results and issued guidance.

Macy's reported a sales decline of 4.6% year-on-year to $8.26 billion, beating the consensus of $8.25 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.88 beat the consensus of $1.57.

Equities Trading UP

• BioRestorative Therapies, Inc. BRTX shares shot up 37% to $3.82 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 Diversified Healthcare Trust DHC got a boost, shooting 45% to $1.3450 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 sales results.
• Exela Technologies, Inc. XELA shares were also up, gaining 40% to $0.0681 after the company announced $51 million of new funding, amendment increases existing securitization facility to $185 million and other related transactions.

Equities Trading DOWN

• ZimVie Inc. ZIMV shares tumbled 39% to $6.37 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 46% to $7.28 after the company delayed the filing of its Form 10-K with the SEC.
• Cano Health, Inc. CANO was down, falling 22% to $1.2150 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 earnings and issued weak FY23 revenue guidance.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $78.24 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,845.00.

Silver traded down 0.3% to $21.01 on Thursday while copper fell 1.7% to $4.0890.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.40%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.30% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.06%. The German DAX gained 0.08% French CAC 40 rose 0.55% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.27%.

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.
• US natural-gas supplies declined 81 billion cubic feet during the week ended Feb. 24, 2023, the EIA said.

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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.