Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Drops 650 Points; Silicon Motion Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks remained lower toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping more than 650 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 3.28% to 32,942.93 while the NASDAQ fell 5.07% to 12,307.94. The S&P also fell, dropping, 3.62% to 4,144.64.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares slipped by just 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Via Renewables, Inc. VIA, up 2% and Eversource Energy ES up 2%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 5.1%.

Top Headline

Kellogg Company K reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

The company reported first-quarter FY22 sales growth of 2.4% year-on-year to $3.67 billion, beating the consensus of $3.59 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.10 beat the analyst consensus of $0.93.

Equities Trading UP

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation SIMO shares shot up 17% to $95.18 after the company announced it will be acquired by MaxLinear for $114.34 per ADS in cash and stock. Silicon Motion also posted upbeat quarterly results.

Shares of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ICPT got a boost, shooting 23% to $19.87 after the company announced Advanz Pharma will acquire Oclavia in PBC in markets out of the US for up to $450 million.

AxoGen, Inc. AXGN shares were also up, gaining 16% to $9.59 after the company reported top-line results from its Phase 3 RECON clinical study. The company said the study met its primary endpoint.

Equities Trading DOWN

Nephros, Inc. NEPH shares tumbled 36% to $2.7350 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results and withdrew its FY22 revenue guidance.

Shares of BioAtla, Inc. BCAB were down 39% to $2.4950 after the company reported Q1 net loss results were higher year over year. Following earnings, Credit Suisse downgraded the stock from Outperform to Neutral and lowered its price target on the stock from $35 to $5.

Inseego Corp. INSG was down, falling 24% to $2.3350 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 sales results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $107.55, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,875.00.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $22.415 Thursday while copper fell 1% to $4.2935.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.70%, London’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.13% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.77%. The German DAX dropped 0.49%, French CAC 40 fell 0.43% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.60%.

The S&P Global Eurozone’s construction PMI slipped to 50.4 in April from March’s reading of 52.8. The S&P Global German construction PMI declined to 46 in April from 50.9 in March, while French construction PMI climbed to 50.7 in April from 48.4.

The Bank of England raised interest rates by 25bps. The S&P Global/CIPS UK services PMI was revised higher to 58.9 in April from a preliminary reading of 58.3, while new car registrations in the country dipped 15.8% year-over-year to 119,167 units in April.

Economics

 

US initial jobless claims rose by 19 thousand to 200 thousand in the week ended April 30th, versus a revised 181 thousand in the prior period.

Nonfarm labor productivity dropped 7.5% in the first quarter, while unit labor costs climbed 11.6%.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 83,356,490 cases with around 1,023,510 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,091,390 cases and 523,970 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,502,500 COVID-19 cases with 663,810 deaths. In total, there were at least 515,414,320 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,269,830 deaths.