Dow Jones Turns Lower; F-star Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks pared gains midway through trading, with the Dow Jones dropping 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.34% to 30,379.44 while the NASDAQ rose 0.70% to 11,131.00 The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.05% to 3,761.59

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares jumped by 1.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Azure Power Global Limited AZRE, up 19% and Cadiz Inc. CDZI up 12%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares tumbled by 1.3%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims declined by 2,000 to 229,000 in the week ended June 18th, compared to market estimates of 227,000.

Equities Trading UP

F-star Therapeutics, Inc. FSTX shares shot up 61% to $6.39 after Sino Biopharmaceutical's invoX Pharma announced it will acquire the company for $7.12 per share. The acquisition values F-star at approximately $161 million.

Shares of Smart for Life, Inc. SMFL got a boost, shooting 44% to $0.6377 after the company announced it will be ramping up manufacturing of Milk Dust lactation products amid the baby formula shortage.

Fujian Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology Ltd. BHAT shares were also up, gaining 124% to $1.6881. Blue Hat Interactive terminated its previously proposed shelf takedown offering.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Century Aluminum Company CENX shares tumbled 11% to $7.62. BMO Capital maintained Century Aluminum with a Market Perform and lowered the price target from $14 to $9.

Shares of Applied Therapeutics, Inc. APLT were down 25% to $0.8023 as the company reported pricing of $30 million public offering of common stock and warrants.

BIT Mining Limited BTCM was down, falling 39% to $0.7234 after the company announced a $16 million registered direct offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $105.58, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,845.30.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $21.395 on Thursday while copper fell 3.1% to $3.8220.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.81%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.85% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.46%. The German DAX dropped 1.49%, French CAC 40 fell 0.62% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.67%.

The S&P Global Eurozone manufacturing PMI declined to 52 in June from 54.6 in May, while services PMI fell to 52.8 in June from 56.1. The S&P Global France services PMI fell to 54.4 in June from 58.3 in May, while manufacturing PMI dropped to a 19-month low of 51 in June.

German manufacturing PMI declined to a 23-month low of 52 in June, while services PMI slipped to 52.4 from 55. The UK’s composite PMI came in at 53.1 in June, unchanged from May.

Economics

US initial jobless claims declined by 2,000 to 229,000 in the week ended June 18th, compared to market estimates of 227,000.

The current account deficit increased to a record high of $291.4 billion in the first quarter from a revised $224.8 billion in the prior period.

The S&P Global services PMI declined to 51.6 in June from 53.4 in May, while manufacturing PMI dropped to 52.4 from 57.

The Energy Information Administration reported a weekly surge of 74 billion cubic feet in natural gas supplies.

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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 88,443,390 cases with around 1,039,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,347,590 cases and 524,940 deaths, while Brazil reported over 31,894,500 COVID-19 cases with 669,610 deaths. In total, there were at least 546,714,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,345,980 deaths.