US Stocks Mostly Flat; NY Empire State Manufacturing Index Surges In April

U.S. stocks traded mostly flat this morning, following the release of economic data.

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.04% to 33,901.46 while the NASDAQ fell 0.09% to 12,112.19. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.03% to 4,136.33.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Real estate shares rose by 0.8% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Altisource Asset Management Corporation AAMC, up 6%, and Digital Realty Trust, Inc. DLR, up 4%.
• In trading on Monday, communication services fell by 1.5%.

Top Headline

The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index surged to 10.8 in April from -24.6 in the previous, beating market expectations of -18.

Equities Trading UP

• Blackboxstocks Inc. BLBX shares shot up 147% to $6.55 after the company announced it entered a letter of intent to merge with Evtec.
• Shares of Prometheus Biosciences, Inc. RXDX got a boost, shooting 69% to $192.96 after Merck announced it will acquire the company for $200 per share in cash.
• CNS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CNSP shares were also up, gaining 72% to $4.0388 after CEO John M Climaco reported the purchase of 15,000 shares at an average price of $0.69 per share and Director Jerzy Gumulka reported the purchase of 7,173 shares at an average price of $0.74 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Near Intelligence, Inc. NIR shares dropped 29% to $4.25 after surging 100% on Friday.
• Shares of SAI.TECH Global Corporation SAI were down 25% to $3.66 after jumping 222% on Friday.
• CXApp Inc. CXAI was down, falling 20% to $11.11 after jumping 94% on Friday.

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Commodities

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In commodity news, oil traded down 0.8% to $81.90 while gold traded down 0.1% at $2,013.30.

Silver traded up 0.3% to $25.525 on Monday while copper fell 0.2% to $4.0965.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.3%. The German DAX fell 0.2%, French CAC 40 fell 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.4%.

The annual inflation rate in Italy eased to 7.6% in March from 9.1% in the prior month, compared to the preliminary reading of 7.7%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.07%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.68% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.42%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.8%.

Indian annual wholesale price inflation rate fell for the tenth straight month to 1.34% in March from 3.85% in the previous period. Average new home prices in China fell by 0.8% year-over-year in March following a 1.2% decline in the prior month.

Economics

• The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index surged to 10.8 in April from -24.6 in the previous, beating market expectations of -18.
• The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index rose for a fourth month to a reading of 45 in April.

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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 106,465,920 cases with around 1,158,160 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,827,220 cases and 531,140 deaths, while France reported over 39,902,000 COVID-19 cases with 166,020 deaths. In total, there were at least 685,692,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,848,620 deaths.