US Stocks Open Higher; Dow Jumps 150 Points

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 150 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.48% to 32,874.88 while the NASDAQ rose 0.68% to 12,007.85. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.62% to 4,052.93.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Real estate shares jumped by 1.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Opendoor Technologies Inc. OPEN, up 2%, and KE Holdings Inc. BEKE, up 5%.
• In trading on Thursday, communication services fell by 0.1%.
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Top Headline

US initial jobless claims increased by 7,000 from the prior week to 198,000 in the week ending March 25, compared to market expectations of 196,000.

Equities Trading UP

• EVgo, Inc. EVGO shares shot up 24% to $7.15 after the company reported reported that fourth-quarter sales nearly quadrupled year-on-year to $27.30 million, beating the consensus of $21.82 million.
• Shares of Fluence Energy, Inc. FLNC got a boost, shooting 16% to $18.86. Goldman Sachs upgraded Fluence Energy from Neutral to Buy and raised the price target from $25 to $29.
• RenovoRx, Inc. RNXT shares were also up, gaining 14% to $4.45 after the company announced new data from Phase III clinical trial interim analysis.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp. DFLI shares dropped 29% to $3.1650 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales.
• Shares of AngioDynamics, Inc. ANGO were down 24% to $9.48 after the company posted downbeat Q3 results and lowered FY23 outlook.
• Laser Photonics Corporation LASE was down, falling 24% to $4.6550 after the company said it will postpone reporting its Q4 ended December 31, 2022.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $73.60 while gold traded up 1% at $1,985.80.

Silver traded up 1.3% to $23.76 on Thursday while copper rose 0.3% to $4.0995.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.8%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 1.5%. The German DAX gained 1%, French CAC 40 rose 1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1%.

The annual consumer price inflation rate in Spain eased to 3.3% in March from 6% in the prior month, while retail sales growth in Spain eased to 4% year-over-year for February compared to around two-year high of 5.5% rise in the prior month. UK car production climbed 13.1% year-over-year to 69,707 units in February compared to a 0.3% decline in January.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.36%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 0.58% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.65%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.6%.

Economics

• US initial jobless claims increased by 7,000 from the prior week to 198,000 in the week ending March 25, compared to market expectations of 196,000.
• The US economy grew by an annualized 2.6% on quarter during the final three months of 2022, compared to initial estimates of a 2.7% growth.

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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 106,163,400 cases with around 1,154,350 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,709,670 cases and 530,840 deaths, while France reported over 39,782,580 COVID-19 cases with 165,600 deaths. In total, there were at least 683,644,470 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,829,250 deaths.