Dow Rises 100 Points; Accelerate Diagnostics Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.31% to 32,819.16 while the NASDAQ rose 0.63% to 12,001.83. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.46% to 4,046.40.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Real estate shares jumped by 1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Medical Properties Trust, Inc.. MPW, up 5%, and KE Holdings Inc. BEKE, up 5%.
• In trading on Thursday, financial fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

US natural-gas stocks declined 47 billion cubic feet during the week ended March 24, down from market expectations of a 54 bcf drop, the EIA said.

Equities Trading UP

• Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc. AXDX shares shot up 29% to $0.6450 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 sales results.
• Shares of Palisade Bio, Inc. PALI got a boost, shooting 41% to $2.3699 after Maxim Group upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy and announced a $50 price target.
• SCYNEXIS, Inc. SCYX shares were also up, gaining 55% to $2.5902 after the company announced an exclusive license agreement with GSK for Brexafemme, in which the company will receive an upfront payment of $90 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp. DFLI shares dropped 22% to $3.47 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales.
• Shares of AngioDynamics, Inc. ANGO were down 24% to $9.49 after the company posted downbeat Q3 results and lowered FY23 outlook.
• Sonida Senior Living, Inc. SNDA was down, falling 40% to $6.43 after reporting downbeat Q4 results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.7% to $74.19 while gold traded up 1.6% at $1,998.60.

Silver traded up 2.2% to $23.97 on Thursday while copper rose 0.1% to $4.0885.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.03%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.74% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 1.5%. The German DAX gained 1.26%, French CAC 40 rose 1.06% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.05%.

The annual consumer price inflation rate in Spain eased to 3.3% in March from 6% in the prior month, while retail sales growth in Spain eased to 4% year-over-year for February compared to around two-year high of 5.5% rise in the prior month. UK car production climbed 13.1% year-over-year to 69,707 units in February compared to a 0.3% decline in January.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.36%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 0.58% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.65%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.6%.

Economics

• US initial jobless claims increased by 7,000 from the prior week to 198,000 in the week ending March 25, compared to market expectations of 196,000.
• The US economy grew by an annualized 2.6% on quarter during the final three months of 2022, compared to initial estimates of a 2.7% growth.
• US natural-gas stocks declined 47 billion cubic feet during the week ended March 24, down from market expectations of a 54 bcf drop, the EIA said.

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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 106,163,400 cases with around 1,154,350 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,709,670 cases and 530,840 deaths, while France reported over 39,782,580 COVID-19 cases with 165,600 deaths. In total, there were at least 683,644,470 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,829,250 deaths.