Nasdaq Rises 100 Points; BJ's Wholesale Posts Weak Sales

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 100 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.47% to 38,843.54 while the NASDAQ rose 0.66% to 16,137.37. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.57% to 5,134.03.

Check This Out: Top 3 Health Care Stocks That Could Lead To Your Biggest Gains In March

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares jumped by 1.3% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, health care shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings Inc BJ reported downbeat sales for its fourth quarter.

BJ’s Wholesale reported fourth-quarter FY23 sales growth of 8.7% year-on-year to $5.36 billion, missing the analyst consensus of $5.39 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.11 beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.06.

Equities Trading UP

Lytus Technologies Holdings PTV. Ltd. LYT shares shot up 411% to $11.81 after the company announced the launch of Lytus Cloud.

Shares of CERo Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. CERO got a boost, surging 158% to $6.58. CERo Therapeutics Announced the publication in clinical cancer research a paper titled "Therapeutic Targeting of TIM-4-L With Engineered T CellsFor Acute Myeloid Leukemia."

Brera Holdings PLC BREA shares were also up, gaining 104% to $2.08 after the company announced that its Executive Chairman, Daniel McClory, acquired a majority stake in the company.

Equities Trading DOWN

Solowin Holdings SWIN shares dropped 46% to $25.26 after jumping 135% on Wednesday.

Shares of Aptorum Group Limited APM were down 35% to $6.19. Aptorum shares jumped 468% on Wednesday after the company announced it entered into an agreement and plan of merger with YOOV and also announced a spin-off agreement to separate its legacy business.

Avid Bioservices, Inc. CDMO was down, falling 28% to $6.34 after the company reported certain preliminary third-quarter financial results and announced a proposed $160 million private placement of convertible notes.

Also Check This Out: Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts' Views On 3 Consumer Stocks Delivering High-Dividend Yields

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $78.44 while gold traded up 0.2% at $2,163.00.

Silver traded down 0.5% to $24.365 on Thursday while copper rose 1.3% to $3.9265.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.6% The German DAX gained 0.1% French CAC 40 rose 0.1% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.1%.

The Halifax House Price Index in the UK increased by 1.7% year-over-year in February. Factory orders in Germany dipped 11.3% month-over-month in January.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 1.23%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipping 1.27%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.41% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.05%.

Chinese trade surplus widened to $125.16 billion in January-February combined compared to $103.8 billion in the year-ago period. Reserve assets in Japan declined to $1.281 trillion in February versus $1.292 trillion a month ago, while Japan’s average cash earnings rose by 2% year-over-year in January.

Economics

U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity rose by 3.2% in the fourth versus a revised 4.9% increase in the third quarter.

Unit labor costs rose an annualized 0.4% in the fourth quarter compared to a 1.1% decline in the prior period.

U.S. initial jobless claims came in unchanged at 217,000 in the latest week, higher than market estimates of 215,000.

U.S.-based companies announced plans to lower 84,638 jobs in February.

The US reported a trade gap of $67.4 billion in January compared to revised $63.5 billion gap in the prior month.

Now Read This: Kroger, Broadcom And 3 Stocks To Watch Heading Into Thursday