Dow Jumps Over 200 Points; US Initial Jobless Claims Fall

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

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.76% to 32,274.05 while the NASDAQ rose 1.28% to 11,818.84. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.96% to 3,974.83.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 1.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Starbox Group Holdings Ltd. STBX, up 20%, and Bilibili Inc. BILI, up 10%.
• In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 191,000 for the week ending March 18, versus markets expectations of 197,000.

Equities Trading UP

• BM Technologies, Inc. BMTX shares shot up 22% to $3.2608. BM Technologies secured new bank partner and extends key partnerships.
• Shares of Starbox Group Holdings Ltd. STBX got a boost, shooting 20% to $3.4902.
• DiamondHead Holdings Corp. DHHC shares were also up, gaining 67% to $17.35. DiamondHead entered into convertible note purchase agreement dated March 21, 2023.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Block, Inc. SQ shares tumbled 20% to $58.01 after Hindenburg Research issued a short report on the stock.
• Shares of Vicarious Surgical Inc. RBOT were down 19% to $1.83.
• Movado Group, Inc. MOV was down, falling 17% to $27.32 after the company reported Q4 results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $70.57 while gold traded up 1.5% at $1,977.80.

Silver traded up 1.1% to $23.040 on Thursday while copper rose 0.4% to $4.0595.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.5%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.3%. The German DAX declined 0.3%, French CAC 40 fell 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.4%.

The Bank of England increased its key bank rate by 25bps to 4.25% at its March meeting, in line with estimates.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.17%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 2.34% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.64%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.5%.

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong rose to 1.7% in February versus a 2.4% increase in the prior month. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority increased the base rate by 25bps on March 23. The Reuters Tankan sentiment index for manufacturers in Japan came in at -3 for March.

Economics

• US initial jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 191,000 for the week ending March 18, versus markets expectations of 197,000.
• The Chicago Fed National Activity Index declined to -0.19 in February from January’s reading of +0.23.
• The current account deficit in the US shrank to $206.8 billion in the final quarter of 2022, compared to market estimates of a $213.2 billion gap.

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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 106,037,020 cases with around 1,152,520 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,699,410 cases and 530,810 deaths, while France reported over 39,726,030 COVID-19 cases with 165,420 deaths. In total, there were at least 682,914,620 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,822,800 deaths.