Dow Drops 75 Points; US Adds 311,000 Jobs In February

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 75 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.24% to 32,179.02 while the NASDAQ fell 0.60% to 11,269.90. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.40% to 3,902.70.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose by 0.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TXO Energy Partners, L.P. RXO, up 1%, and Vermilion Energy Inc. GNE, up 2%.
• In trading on Friday, financial shares dipped by 2.5%.

Top Headline

The US economy unexpectedly added 311,000 jobs in February, well above market estimates of 205,000, and compared to revised 504,000 in January.

The unemployment rate rose to 3.6% in February versus a 50-year low of 3.4% recorded in January.

Equities Trading UP

• PlayAGS, Inc. AGS shares shot up 23% to $7.84 after the company posted better-than-expected Q4 results.
• Shares of PLAYSTUDIOS, Inc. MYPS got a boost, shooting 19% to $4.1462 after reporting upbeat quarterly results.
• Heritage Global Inc. HGBL shares were also up, gaining 16% to $2.87 after the company reported strong Q4 financial results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• First Republic Bank FRC shares tumbled 38% to $59.60. The stock is sharply lower as shares of several regional banks and financial institutions sell off on downward momentum after SVB Financial Group Wednesday announced a $1.25 billion common stock offering.
• Shares of Western Alliance Bancorporation WAL were down 27% to $45.60.
• PacWest Bancorp PACW was down, falling 29% to $14.20 in sympathy with SVB Financial Group after the company announced a $1.25 billion common stock offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $76.36 while gold traded up 0.8% at $1,848.40.

Silver traded up 1.9% to $20.555 on Friday while copper fell 0.2% to $4.03.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.9%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.4% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.4%. The German DAX dropped 0.9% French CAC 40 fell 0.8% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.5%.

Italian industrial producer prices climbed 11.1% year-over-year in January, the least since June 2021. Retail sales in Spain rose by 5.5% year-over-year in January. French trade deficit shrank to EUR 12.9 billion in January from EUR 14.9 billion a month ago. German annual inflation rate was confirmed at 8.7% for February.

Industrial production in the UK dropped 0.3% month-over-month in January versus a 0.3% growth in the previous month, while trade deficit narrowed to £5.86 billion in January from £7.15 billion a month ago. The British economy grew 0.3% month-over-month during January.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.67%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 3.04% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 1.40%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex fell 1.1%.

Auto sales in China jumped by 13.5% year-over-year to around 1.98 million units in February compared to a 35% drop in the prior month. The Bank of Japan maintained its key short-term interest rate unchanged at -0.1% at its recent meeting. Producer prices in Japan rose by 8.2% year-over-year in February.

Economics

• The US economy unexpectedly added 311,000 jobs in February, well above market estimates of 205,000, and compared to revised 504,000 in January.
• Average hourly earnings for employees on US private nonfarm payrolls increased 0.2% to $33.09 in February.
• The unemployment rate rose to 3.6% in February versus a 50-year low of 3.4% recorded in January.

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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 105,547,760 cases with around 1,148,390 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,689,510 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 681,285,050 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,810,270 deaths.