US Stocks Mixed; Jobless Claims Drop More than Projected

U.S. stocks traded mixed this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 100 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.31% to 33,315.53 while the NASDAQ rose 0.28% to 12,535.19. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.06% to 4,156.44.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Financials shares rose by 2.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SelectQuote, Inc. SLQT, up 35%, and National Western Life Group, Inc. NWLI, up 41%.
• In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

U.S. jobless claims dropped to 242 thousand in the week ending May 13, versus an 18-month high level of 264 thousand and compared to market estimates of 254 thousand.

Equities Trading UP

• CaliberCos Inc. CWD shares shot up 83% to $10.97 amid post-IPO volatility.
• Shares of Alimera Sciences, Inc. ALIM got a boost, shooting 37% to $2.81 after the company announced it acquired U.S. commercial rights to YUTIQ.
• SciPlay Corporation SCPL shares were also up, gaining 27% to $19.71 after Light & Wonder announced a proposal to acquire the remaining public shares of the company.

Equities Trading DOWN

• NanoString Technologies, Inc. NSTG shares dropped 23% to $6.53 after 10x Genomics won a permanent injunction against the company's CosMx products.
• Shares of Bowlero Corp. BOWL were down 18% to $11.60 after the company reported third-quarter results.
• Smart for Life, Inc.. SMFL was down, falling 15% to $2.8594 after the company reported a $1.58 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules.

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Commodities

• In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $72.06 while gold traded down 1.2% at $1,960.60.

Silver traded down 1.3% to $23.58 on Thursday while copper fell 1.9% to $3.6830.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.40%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.26% The German DAX climbed 1.1%, French CAC 40 gained 0.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.52%.

Spanish trade deficit shrank to EUR 0.16 billion, recording its smallest gap since May 2021.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.60%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.85% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbing 0.40%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.1%.

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate declined to 3% in the three months ending April from 3.1% in the prior period. Australia's unemployment rate increased to 3.7% in April. Japanese trade deficit declined to JPY 432.4 billion in April compared to a JPY 854.9 billion gap in the same month of the previous year.

Economics

• U.S. jobless claims dropped to 242 thousand in the week ending May 13, versus an 18-month high level of 264 thousand and compared to market estimates of 254 thousand.
• The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index rose to -10.4 in May versus a reading of -31.3 in April.

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COVID-19 Updae

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 106,859,470 cases with around 1,163,680 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,983,150 cases and 531,790 deaths, while France reported over 40,054,860 COVID-19 cases with 167,050 deaths. In total, there were at least 688,579,060 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,876,400 deaths.