US Stocks Turn Lower; S&P 500 Down 1%

U.S. stocks turned lower toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones dropping around 300 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.88% to 32,510.83 while the NASDAQ fell 1.34% to 11,421.06. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.08% to 3,948.74.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Utilities shares rose by 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included ReNew Energy Global Plc RNW, up 4%, and Genie Energy Ltd. GNE, up 4%.
• In trading on Thursday, financial shares dipped by 2.5%.

Top Headline

JD.com, Inc JD reported better-than-expected Q4 results.

JD.com reported fourth-quarter FY22 revenue growth of 7.1% year-on-year to $42.84 billion, beating the consensus of $42.73 billion. Non-GAAP net income per ADS of $0.70 beat the consensus of $0.50.

Equities Trading UP

• Ocean Biomedical, Inc. OCEA shares shot up 75% to $8.19 after the company shared detailed research data on anti-tumor pathway discoveries and their potential for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic melanoma, and glioblastoma by Scientific Co-founder, Dr. Jack A. Elias, MD.
• Shares of Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc. NLTX got a boost, shooting 32% to $0.6979. Neoleukin Therapeutics engaged SVB Securities to assist in reviewing strategic alternatives. The company also approved a further corporate restructuring to preserve cash, including reducing its workforce by approximately 70%.
• Holley Inc. HLLY shares were also up, gaining 53% to $3.03 after the company reported Q4 financial results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. AKBA shares tumbled 23% to $0.7960 after the company reported Q4 financial results.
• Shares of SVB Financial Group SIVB were down 47% to $141.55 after the parent of Silicon Valley Bank announced proposed offerings of common stock and convertible preferred stock.
• InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. NVIV was down, falling 45% to $1.1609 after the company announced topline data from its INSPIRE 2.0 study in acute spinal cord injury, in which the primary endpoint was not met.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $76.80 while gold traded up 0.8% at $1,832.90.

Silver traded up 0.2% to $20.185 on Thursday while copper rose 0.1% to $4.0300.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.22%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.63% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.45%. The German DAX gained 0.01% French CAC 40 fell 0.12% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.72%.

Payroll employment in the French private sector rose by 0.2% to 21.03 million during the fourth quarter, compared to a 87.6 thousand growth in the prior three-month period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.63%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 0.63% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.22%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.9%.

Chinese annual inflation rate eased to 1.0% in February from 2.1% in the previous month, while producer prices declined 1.4% from a year ago in February. The Japanese economy grew by an annualized rate of 0.1% in the fourth quarter versus the preliminary figure of a 0.6% growth.

Economics

• US initial jobless claims climbed by 21,000 from the prior week to 211,000 in the week ending March 4, higher than market estimates of 195,000.
• US natural-gas supplies dropped 84 billion cubic feet last week, 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 105,524,390 cases with around 1,148,090 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,688,690 cases and 530,770 deaths, while France reported over 39,639,110 COVID-19 cases with 165,070 deaths. In total, there were at least 681,090,770 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,808,370 deaths.