US Stocks Lower Following Initial Jobless Claims Report

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, following the release of jobless claims data.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.16% to 33,895.80 while the NASDAQ fell 0.35% to 13,455.17. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.27% to 4,353.73.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Consumer staples shares rose 0.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Steakholder Foods Ltd. STKH, up 5%, and Church & Dwight Co., Inc. CHD, up 2%.
• In trading on Thursday, energy shares dipped by 1.3%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims came in at 264,000 for the week ending June 17, unchanged from a revised higher level of 264,000 the prior week and slightly above expectations of 260,000.

Equities Trading UP

• Root, Inc. ROOT shares shot up 47% to $14.17 following a Wall Street Journal report suggesting the company has received a takeover bid.
• Shares of Talaris Therapeutics, Inc. TALS got a boost, shooting 19% to $2.62 after the company and Tourmaline Bio announced a merger agreement.
• IGM Biosciences, Inc. IGMS shares were also up, gaining 13% to $9.98 after the company reported pricing of $107.3 million upsized public offering and concurrent private placement.

Equities Trading DOWN

• AlloVir, Inc. ALVR shares dropped 29% to $3.48 after the company priced a 20 million share offering at $3.75 per share.
• Shares of Avid Bioservices, Inc. CDMO were down 16% to $13.12 after the company issued FY24 revenue guidance below estimates.
• Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. SPR was down, falling 13% to $26.04 after the company suspended factory operations due to worker's strike.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.8% to $70.52 while gold traded down 0.7% at $ 1,930.90.

Silver traded down 1.2% to $22.535 on Thursday while copper fell 0.1% to $3.9095.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.71%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.84% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.94% The German DAX dropped 0.44% French CAC 40 fell 0.87% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.70%.

The manufacturing climate indicator in France climbed to 101 in June versus a 26-month low level of 99 in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.92% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex falling 0.4%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims came in at 264,000 for the week ending June 17, unchanged from a revised higher level of 264,000 the prior week and slightly above expectations of 260,000.
• The U.S. reported a current account gap of $219.3 billion in the first quarter, higher than the revised $216.2 billion gap in the fourth quarter.
• The Chicago Fed National Activity Index fell to -0.15 in May versus a revised reading of 0.14 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 107,260,950 cases with around 1,167,510 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,993,670 cases and 531,890 deaths, while France reported over 40,128,660 COVID-19 cases with 167,590 deaths. In total, there were at least 690,657,840 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,893,590 deaths.