Gold Down Over 1%; US Initial Jobless Claims Increase

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dipping around 150 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.33% to 40,755.96 while the NASDAQ fell 0.86% to 17,764.21. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.46% to 5,594.92.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 0.1% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 4,000 from the prior week to 232,000 in the week ending August 17th, compared to market expectations of 230,000.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Peloton Interactive, Inc. PTON shares shot up 26% to $4.230 after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter financial results.
• Shares of Rezolve AI Limited RZLV got a boost, surging 24% to $11.00 after the company announced a partnership with ePages.
• Air Industries Group AIRI shares were also up, gaining 104% to $7.67 after the company announced it received a $110 million contract for the production of Thrust Struts used in the GTF aircraft jet engine.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Revelation Biosciences, Inc.. REVB shares dropped 38% to $1.30 after the company announced it entered into agreement to exercise 2.55 million warrants at $1.50 per share.
• Shares of Cyclo Therapeutics, Inc. CYTH were down 29% to $0.89 after the company announced it agreed to merge with Rafael Holdings.
• Oblong, Inc. OBLG was down, falling 27% to $0.0865 after the company announced a 1-for-40 reverse stock split.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.7% to $73.13 while gold traded down 1.3% at $2,513.30.

Silver traded down 1.7% to $29.02 on Thursday, while copper fell 1.2% to $4.1385.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.42%, Germany's DAX rose 0.34% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.11%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.49%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.03%.

The S&P Global UK composite PMI climbed to 53.4 in August, notching the highest level since April. The HCOB Eurozone composite PMI surged to 51.2 in August from 50.2 a month ago.

The HCOB France composite PMI rose to 52.7 in August from 49.1 in the previous month, while Germany composite PMI fell to 48.5 in August from July’s reading of 49.1.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.68%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 1.44%, China's Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.27% and India's BSE Sensex rising 0.18%.

The HSBC India Composite PMI slipped to 60.5 in August versus 60.7 in the previous month, while Japan composite PMI climbed to 53.0 in August from 52.5 a month ago.

Economics

• The Chicago Fed National Activity Index declined to -0.34 in July versus a revised reading of -0.09 in June.
• U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 4,000 from the prior week to 232,000 in the week ending August 17th, compared to market expectations of 230,000.
• The S&P Global manufacturing PMI declined to 48 in August versus 49.6 in the prior month, while services PMI rose to 55.2 from 55.
• U.S. existing home sales increased by 1.3% from the prior month to an annualized rate of 3.95 million in July.
• U.S. natural-gas supplies rose 35 billion cubic feet in the week ended Aug. 16, compared to market expectations for a 27 billion cubic feet gain.

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