Nasdaq Down 100 Points; US Housing Starts Surge In February

U.S. stocks traded mixed this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite falling around 100 points on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.11% to 38,831.86 while the NASDAQ fell 0.63% to 16,001.30. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.28% to 5,135.12.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 0.4% on Tuesday.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

Housing starts in the U.S. surged 10.7% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.521 million in February following a 12.3% decline in January.

Equities Trading UP

Ontrak, Inc. OTRK shares shot up 153% to $0.4787 ahead of the company's presentation at the 36th Annual Roth Conference.

Shares of Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. FUSN got a boost, surging 97% to $21.00 after the company announced agreed to be acquired by AstraZeneca. Also, Leerink Partners downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform but raised its price target from $17 to $21.

Enveric Biosciences, Inc ENVB shares were also up, gaining 44% to $1.59 after the company announced that it signed two non-binding term sheets with an undisclosed biotechnology company to pursue the out-licensing of cannabinoid-COX-2 conjugate compounds for pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical applications for the treatment of joint diseases.

Equities Trading DOWN

Greenwave Technology Solutions, Inc. GWAV shares dropped 56% to $0.1627. The company announced it has restructured its senior secured debt.

Shares of Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. SEEL were down 53% to $0.43 after the company announced that its ALS study with SLS-005 did not meet statistical significance in the primary and secondary endpoint in the Full Analysis Set.

Peraso Inc. PRSO was down, falling 22% to $1.34 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter EPS results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $82.79 while gold traded down 0.3% at $2,157.70.

Silver traded down 0.5% to $25.145 on Tuesday, while copper fell 1.1% to $4.0830.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.3% The German DAX fell 0.1% French CAC 40 rose 0.20% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.3%.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for the Eurozone rose by 8.5 points to a reading of 33.5 in March, while wages in the Eurozone increased 3.1% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. Hourly labor costs rose by 3.4% year-over-year for the quarter.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany climbed to a reading of +31.7 in March, surging to its strongest level since Feb. 2022.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.66%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.24%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipping 0.72% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex falling 0.87%.

Industrial production in Japan fell by 6.7% month-over-month in January compared to the preliminary figure of a 7.5% decline. The Bank of Japan increased its key short-term interest rate to around 0% to 0.1%.

Economics

Housing starts in the U.S. surged 10.7% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.521 million in February following a 12.3% decline in January.

U.S. building permits rose by 1.9% to an annual rate of 1.518 million in February, versus market estimates of 1.495 million.

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