Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 180 Points; Creative Medical Technology Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading following the release of weekly jobless claims data.

The Dow traded down 0.52% to 35,043.99 while the NASDAQ fell 0.22% to 14,410.57. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.38% to 4,585.08.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares jumped by 0.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP SBS, up 5% and Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais CIG up 4%.

In trading on Wednesday, financials shares fell 1.2%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims increased by 14 thousand to 202 thousand in the week ended March 26th. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting a reading of 197 thousand.

Equities Trading UP

Longeveron Inc. LGVN shares shot up 87% to $12.59 after the company announced the publication of results from a Phase 1 trial testing Lomecel-B on patients with mild Alzheimer's disease in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Shares of Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc. CELZ got a boost, shooting 24% to $4.19 after the company announced it signed a Master Collaboration Agreement with the University of Miami to accelerate development of its ImmCelz Supercharged Autologous Immunotherapy Platform.

Icosavax, Inc. ICVX shares were also up, gaining 25% to $6.67 following Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Rail Vision Ltd. RVSN shares tumbled 33% to $2.7499 as the company priced its IPO at $4.13 per unit.

Shares of Clarus Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. CRXT were down 29% to $1.47 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

Motorsport Games Inc. MSGM was down, falling 34% to $1.35 after the company reported Q4 financial results. Canaccord Genuity and Benchmark downgraded the stock.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 6.7% to $100.65, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,947.10.

Silver traded down 0.3% Thursday to $25.04 while copper fell 0.4% to $4.73.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.94%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.83%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.23%. The German DAX dropped 1.31%, French CAC 40 fell 1.21% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.1%.

Economics

US initial jobless claims increased by 14 thousand to 202 thousand in the week ended March 26th. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting a reading of 197 thousand.

Personal income rose 0.5% from a month ago in February, while personal spending rose 0.2% month-over-month. The personal consumption expenditure price index surged 6.4% year-over-year in February.

The Chicago PMI for March is scheduled for release at 9:45 a.m. ET. After a slower-than-expected reading of 56.3 in February, analysts expect the Chicago PMI rising slightly to 57.0 in March.

US natural-gas supplies climbed 26 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,686,620 cases with around 1,005,050 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,023,210 cases and 521,130 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,882,390 COVID-19 cases with 659,290 deaths. In total, there were at least 485,724,930 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,158,100 deaths.