Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge higher; US Weekly Jobless Claims Drop To 214,000

U.S. stocks traded slightly higher this morning following the release of weekly jobless claims data on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.06% to 34,084.20 while the NASDAQ rose 0.47% to 13,499.16. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.27% to 4,369.43.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 1.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ring Energy, Inc. REI, up 10% and Indonesia Energy Corporation Limited INDO up 13%.

In trading on Thursday, financials shares fell by 0.5%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims dropped by 15 thousand to 214 thousand in the week ended March 12th, recording the lowest level in 10 weeks. Analysts were expecting a reading of 220 thousand.

Equities Trading UP

Allego N.V. ALLG shares shot up 36% to $8.77. Spartan Acquisition Corp. III reported the completion of its business combination with Allego Holding B.V.

Shares of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Inc. EIGR got a boost, shooting 28% to $7.30 after the company reported a single dose of its Lambda for COVID 'significantly reduced the risk of COVID-19-related hospitalizations or emergency room visits greater than six hours by 50%.'

Imperial Petroleum Inc. IMPP shares were also up, gaining 29% to $2.6310 after dropping around 25% on Wednesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

MDJM Ltd MDJH shares tumbled 24% to $2.11.

Shares of Akanda Corp. AKAN were down 14% to $9.43. The company recently priced its IPO at $4 per share.

Integrated Media Technology Limited IMTE was down, falling 12% to $9.48. Integrated Media Technology issued a filing indicating the board approved the fund raising of up to $20 million.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 5.1% to $99.89, while gold traded up 2% to $1,946.70.

Silver traded up 3.6% Thursday to $25.61 while copper rose 0.5% to $4.6240.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.6%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.4%. The German DAX declined 1%, French CAC 40 fell 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.5%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone increased to a fresh record high of 5.9% in February from 5.1% in the previous month. Spanish trade deficit widened to €6.1 billion in January from €1.8 billion in the year-ago month. Passenger car sales in the European Union fell 6.7% year-over-year to 719,465 in February.

Economics

Housing starts in the US rose 6.8% to an annualized rate of 1.769 million in February, while building permits slipped 1.9% last month.

US initial jobless claims dropped by 15 thousand to 214 thousand in the week ended March 12th, recording the lowest level in 10 weeks. Analysts were expecting a reading of 220 thousand.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index climbed to 27.4 in March from 16 in February.

Industrial production in the US rose 0.5% from a month ago in February.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

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Check out the full economic calendar here

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,289,600 cases with around 994,730 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,001,470 cases and 516,160 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,478,030 COVID-19 cases with 656,000 deaths. In total, there were at least 464,650,630 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,082,830 deaths.