Dow Up 150 Points; US Weekly Jobless Claims Rise

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 150 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.46% to 32,948.78 while the NASDAQ rose 0.27% to 11,607.61. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.36% to 4,006.30.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose by 1.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. KLXE, up 17%, and VET, up 5%.
• In trading on Thursday, financial shares dipped by 0.7%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims climbed by 21,000 from the prior week to 211,000 in the week ending March 4, higher than market estimates of 195,000.

Equities Trading UP

• Ocean Biomedical, Inc. OCEA shares shot up 81% to $8.47 after the company shared detailed research data on anti-tumor pathway discoveries and their potential for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic melanoma, and glioblastoma by Scientific Co-founder, Dr. Jack A. Elias, MD.
• Shares of Solo Brands, Inc. DTC got a boost, shooting 23% to $4.94 after the company announced better-than-expected Q4 results.
• Toro Corp. TORO shares were also up, gaining 38% to $5.32.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Silvergate Capital Corporation SI shares tumbled 38% to $3.0601 after the company announced it will wind down operations and voluntarily liquidate Silvergate Bank.
• Shares of SVB Financial Group SIVB were down 35% to $173.01 after the parent of Silicon Valley Bank announced proposed offerings of common stock and convertible preferred stock.
• Fulcrum Therapeutics, Inc. FULC was down, falling 24% to $4.76. Fulcrum Therapeutics posted a Q4 loss of $0.50 per share.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $77.42 while gold traded up 0.6% at $1,829.90.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $20.17 on Thursday while copper rose 0.4% to $4.0425.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.5%. The German DAX declined 0.3% French CAC 40 fell 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.7%.

Payroll employment in the French private sector rose by 0.2% to 21.03 million during the fourth quarter, compared to a 87.6 thousand growth in the prior three-month period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.63%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 0.63% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.22%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.9%.

Chinese annual inflation rate eased to 1.0% in February from 2.1% in the previous month, while producer prices declined 1.4% from a year ago in February. The Japanese economy grew by an annualized rate of 0.1% in the fourth quarter versus the preliminary figure of a 0.6% growth.

Economics

US initial jobless claims climbed by 21,000 from the prior week to 211,000 in the week ending March 4, higher than market estimates of 195,000.

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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 105,524,390 cases with around 1,148,090 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,688,690 cases and 530,770 deaths, while France reported over 39,639,110 COVID-19 cases with 165,070 deaths. In total, there were at least 681,090,770 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,808,370 deaths.