Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.31% to 31,862.21 while the NASDAQ fell 0.93% to 13,472.18. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.58% to 3,902.54.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 28,336,200 cases with around 505,890 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,046,910 confirmed cases and 156,700 deaths, while Brazil reported over 10,324,460 COVID-19 cases with 249,950 deaths. In total, there were at least 112,646,450 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,499,200 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Real estate shares rose 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included The St. Joe Company JOE, up 10%, and Empire State Realty OP, L.P. FISK, up 8%.
In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell by 1.3%.
Top Headline
Best Buy Co., Inc. BBY reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.
Best Buy reported quarterly earnings of $3.48 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $3.45 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $16.94 billion, versus expectations of $17.23 billion.
Best Buy raised its quarterly dividend from $0.55 to $0.70 per share.
Equities Trading UP
Pandion Therapeutics, Inc. PAND shares shot up 132% to $59.45 after the company announced it will be acquired by Merck for $60 per share in cash.
Shares of Socket Mobile, Inc. SCKT got a boost, shooting 64% to $16.56 after the company reported a strong rise in Q4 earnings.
Koss Corporation KOSS shares were also up, gaining 60% to $29.56 on continued momentum after jumping around 55% on Wednesday.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
Ping Identity Holding Corp. PING shares tumbled 21% to $25.66 after the company reported downbeat Q4 sales and issued weak sales guidance. Credit Suisse downgraded Ping Identity from Outperform to Neutral and lowered the price target from $34 to $30.
Shares of Warrior Met Coal, Inc. HCC were down 18% to $21.00 after the company posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.
CollPlant Biotechnologies Ltd. CLGN was down, falling 18% to $15.45 after the company said that on February 24, 2021 it received a notice from Lung Biotechnology regarding the termination of the licensing agreement between the parties.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $63.32, while gold traded down 0.8% to $1,784.00.
Silver traded down 0.3% Thursday to $27.935 while copper rose 0.6% to $4.3190.
Euro zone
European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.5% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.3%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.1%.
Eurozone consumer confidence indicator rose to -14.8 in February from previous month’s reading of -15.5, while industry confidence indicator rose to -3.3 in February. The economic sentiment indicator rose to 93.4 in February from 91.5 in the prior month.
French consumer confidence indicator declined to 91 in February from 92 in January, while German consumer climate indicator rose to -12.9 heading into March. Italy’s consumer confidence index rose to 101.4 in February from 100.7 in the earlier month. Producer prices in Spain increased 0.9% year-over-year in January.
Economics
US durable goods orders rose 3.4% in January .
The US economy expanded by an annualized rate of 4.1% in the fourth quarter, higher than the initial estimate of a 4% growth.
US initial jobless claims declined by 111,000 to 730,000 in the week ended February 20.
The pending home sales index climbed 13% year-over-year in January.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m.
The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for February is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.
Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles will speak at 11:10 a.m. ET.
The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.
The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Check out the full economic calendar here
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