Nasdaq Surges Over 250 Points; Crude Oil Up 1%

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 200 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.94% to 32,174.00 while the NASDAQ rose 2.26% to 11,692.78. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.52% to 3,951.21.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 2.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included System1, Inc. SST, up 8%, and Yalla Group Limited YALA, up 7%.
• In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell by 0.5%.

Top Headline

US export prices climbed by 0.2% from a month ago in February, while import prices declined 0.1%.

Equities Trading UP

• PureCycle Technologies, Inc. PCT shares shot up 44% to $6.89 after the company provided a Q4 2022 update.
• Shares of PagerDuty, Inc. PD got a boost, shooting 15% to $31.93 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued adjusted EPS guidance above estimates.
• Lipella Pharmaceuticals Inc. LIPO shares were also up, gaining 41% to $2.5150 after the company announced the successful completion of a Phase 2A clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of its drug candidate LP-10 for hemorrhagic cystitis.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. ESPR shares tumbled 50% to $2.0050 after the company reported a disagreement with one of its partners over certain milestone payments.
• Shares of LivePerson, Inc. LPSN were down 56% to $4.30 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results and issued Q1 and FY23 revenue guidance below estimates.
• Proterra Inc. PTRA was down, falling 52% to $1.2150 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results and issued FY23 revenue guidance below estimates.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $68.30 while gold traded down 0.4% at $1,923.70.

Silver traded down 0.6% to $21.75 on Thursday while copper rose 0.6% to $3.8670.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 jumped 1.19%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.89% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.50%. The German DAX gained 1.57%, French CAC 40 gained 2.03% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.38%.

The European Central Bank announced a half-percentage-point rate hike at its recent meeting. Spain's trade deficit shrank to EUR 3.96 billion in January from EUR 6.52 billion in the year-ago month. The annual inflation rate in Italy fell to 9.1% in February versus an initial reading of 9.2%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.80%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 1.72% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 1.12%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.2%.

Industrial production in Japan fell 5.3% month-over-month in January, while core machinery orders in the country climbed 9.5% month-over-month in January. Japanese trade deficit widened to JPY 897.7 billion in February from JPY 711.5 billion in the year-ago month.

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate fell to 3.3% during the three months ending Feb. 2023. Average new home prices in China fell by 1.2% year-over-year in February. Australian unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% in February.

Economics

• US initial jobless claims dropped by 20,000 from the prior week to 192,000 in the week ending March 11, compared to market expectations of 205,000.
• The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index rose 1 point to a reading of -23.2 in March.
• US export prices climbed by 0.2% from a month ago in February, while import prices declined 0.1%.
• Housing starts in the US rose 9.8% from a month ago to an annualized rate of 1.45 million in February, while building permits jumped 13.8% to an annual rate of 1.524 million.

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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 105,735,650 cases with around 1,150,130 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,692,710 cases and 530,790 deaths, while France reported over 39,675,450 COVID-19 cases with 165,260 deaths. In total, there were at least 682,048,540 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,815,400 deaths.