Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; US Economy Contracts 1.5% In Q1

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 200 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.46% to 32,587.74 while the NASDAQ rose 1.77% to 11,636.96. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.51% to 4,038.95.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 3.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included GameStop Corp. GME, up 19% and GameStop Corp. MOD up 23%.

In trading on Thursday, health care shares rose by just 0.5%.

Top Headline

The US economy contracted an annualized 1.5% on quarter during the first three months of the year, compared to initial estimate of a 1.4% drop.

 

Equities Trading UP

SciSparc Ltd. SPRC shares shot up 44% to $3.43. SciSparc reported Ethics Committee approval to conduct a Phase IIb trial in Tourette Syndrome.

Shares of Apyx Medical Corporation APYX got a boost, shooting 35% to $5.01 after the company received the FDA 510(k) clearance for use of renuvion cosmetic technology in dermal resurfacing procedures.

Modine Manufacturing Company MOD shares were also up, gaining 22% to $10.62 as the company reported fourth-quarter FY22 sales growth of 12% year-on-year, to $574.4 million, beating the consensus of $538.02 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc AVDL shares tumbled 51% to $1.66 after announcing new FDA request for experimental narcolepsy drug.

Shares of MSP Recovery, Inc. MSPR were down 28% to $2.700. MSP Recovery reaffirmed its sales guidance.

Nutanix, Inc. NTNX was down, falling 25% to $16.14 after the company issued Q4 and FY22 sales guidance below estimates.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $111.22, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,842.40.

Silver traded up 0.2% to $21.92 on Thursday while copper fell 0.3% to $4.2360.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.8%. The German DAX gained 0.5%, French CAC 40 rose 0.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.2%.

Manufacturing confidence in Italy fell to 109.3 in May, recording the lowest reading since April 2021, while consumer confidence rose to 102.7, from a 17-month low of 100 in April. UK’s car production declined 11.3% from a year ago to 60,554 units in April.

Economics

The US economy contracted an annualized 1.5% on quarter during the first three months of the year, compared to initial estimate of a 1.4% drop.

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 8 thousand to 210 thousand in the week ended May 21st.

Corporate profits dropped 4.3% to $2.42 trillion in the first quarter.

The pending home sales index fell 3.9% in April.

The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for May is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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

The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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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 85,440,340 cases with around 1,030,410 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,144,820 cases and 524,520 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,846,600 COVID-19 cases with 666,110 deaths. In total, there were at least 529,851,290 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,306,520 deaths.