US Stocks Turn Lower; Dow Drops 150 Points

U.S. stocks turned lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones dropping around 150 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.47% to 32,889.30 while the NASDAQ fell 0.47% to 11,452.63. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.32% to 3,978.24.

Check This Out: Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts Say Hold These 3 Healthcare Stocks Delivering High-Dividend Yields

Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose around 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Permian Resources Corporation PR, up 14%, and Obsidian Energy Ltd. OBE, up 10%.
• In trading on Thursday, communication services shares fell by 1.6%.

Top Headline

US jobless claims dropped by 3,000 to 192,000 in the week ending Feb. 18, compared to market estimates of 200,000.

Equities Trading UP

• Ocean Biomedical, Inc. OCEA shares shot up 230% to $15.87 after the company issued a press release celebrating the discovery of bispecific antibodies and immune checkpoint inibitors that kill glioblastoma cells and melanoma cells and block the metastasis of malignant melanoma cells to the lung by over 90%.
• Shares of NeoGenomics, Inc. NEO got a boost, shooting 21% to $16.22 after reporting better-than-expected Q4 results.
• Vascular Biogenics Ltd. VBLT shares were also up, gaining 75% to $0.2269 after the company and Notable Labs announced a definitive merger agreement.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Cyren Ltd. CYRN shares tumbled 40% to $0.23 after the company announced it will be delisted from the Nasdaq.
• Shares of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. INFI were down 46% to $0.2981 after the company and MEI Pharma announced a definitive merger agreement to advance three promising clinical oncology candidates. Infinity will become a wholly owned subsidiary of MEI Pharma.
• Lucira Health, Inc. LHDX was down, falling 37% to $0.1439 after the company announced it will pursue a strategic sale of its business through the voluntary Chapter 11 process.

Also Check This Out: Bitcoin, Ethereum Move Higher; Optimism, Enjin Coin Among Top Gainers

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $75.08 while gold traded down 0.7% at $1,828.70.

Silver traded down 1.6% to $21.34 on Thursday while copper fell 3% to $4.0665.

Stocks of crude oil in the US rose by 9.895 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 17, 2023, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed. Stocks of crude oil in the US climbed by 7.648 million barrels to 850.6 million in the week ended Feb. 17, 2023, the EIA said.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.13%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.24% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.62%. The German DAX gained 0.56% French CAC 40 rose 0.36% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.73%.

The consumer price inflation in the Eurozone rose to 8.6% year-over-year in January from a preliminary reading of 8.5%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.35% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropping 0.11%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.1%.

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong increased to 2.4% in January from 2% in the prior month, while Singapore’s annual inflation rate rose to 6.6% in January.

Economics

• US jobless claims dropped by 3,000 to 192,000 in the week ending Feb. 18, compared to market estimates of 200,000.
• The US economy grew by an annualized 2.7% on quarter during the fourth quarter, down from 2.9% in the advance estimate.
• The Chicago Fed National Activity Index climbed to +0.23 in January versus a revised reading of -0.46 in December.
• Stocks of crude oil in the US climbed by 7.648 million barrels to 850.6 million in the week ended Feb. 17, 2023, the EIA said.
• The Kansas City Fed’s Manufacturing Production index declined to -9 in February from -4 a month ago.

Now Read This: Top 5 Energy Stocks Which Could Rescue Your Portfolio This Month

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 105,092,400 cases with around 1,143,760 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,685,450 cases and 530,760 deaths, while France reported over 39,600,540 COVID-19 cases with 164,820 deaths. In total, there were at least 679,159,550 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,794,390 deaths.