US Stocks Turn Lower; Nasdaq Down Over 1%

U.S. stocks turned lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones falling more than 200 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.60% to 34,265.04 while the NASDAQ fell 1.35% to 13,535.36. The S&P 500, also fell, declining, 0.84% to 4,398.74.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 0.5% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 1.3%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 from the previous week’s revised reading to 230,000 in the week ending Aug. 19, compared to market estimates of 240,000.

Equities Trading UP

TDCX Inc. TDCX shares shot up 28% to $6.14 following second-quarter earnings.

Shares of Guess?, Inc. GES got a boost, shooting 27% to $23.33 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and issued above-consensus FY24 EPS guidance.

Backblaze, Inc. BLZE shares were also up, gaining 16% to $5.13 as the company raised its FY23 revenue outlook.

Equities Trading DOWN

Orbital Infrastructure Group, Inc. OIG shares dropped 34% to $0.79 after the company announced it filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Shares of Societal CDMO, Inc. SCTL were down 33% to $0.4101 after the company announced pricing of its $8.3 million public offering of common stock.

Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. WOOF was down, falling 23% to $5.05 after the company reported second-quarter results and initiated cost action plan during the quarter.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $78.58 while gold traded up 0.1% at $1,949.10.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $24.30 on Thursday while copper fell 0.7% to $3.7805.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.38% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.15% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.15% The German DAX fell 0.61% French CAC 40 fell 0.4%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.45%.

The manufacturing climate indicator in France fell to 96 in August versus a revised 101 in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising 0.87%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.12% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 2.05%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.28%.

Imports to Hong Kong fell 7.9% year-over-year to $375.1 billion in July, while exports declined 9.1% year-over-year to $345.2 billion.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 from the previous week’s revised reading to 230,000 in the week ending Aug. 19, compared to market estimates of 240,000.

U.S. durable goods orders fell 5.2% from the prior month in July versus a revised growth of 4.4% in June.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to 0.12 in July versus a revised reading of -0.33 in June.

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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 107,924,240 cases with around 1,173,080 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,996,730 cases and 531,920 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 694,122,800 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,910,110 deaths.