Dow Jumps Over 300 Points; ISM Manufacturing PMI Drops In March

U.S. stocks traded mixed this morning, with the Dow Jones jumping more than 300 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 1.07% to 33,628.57 while the NASDAQ fell 0.25% to 12,191.42. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.43% to 4,126.89.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares jumped by 5.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Hammerhead Energy Inc. HHRS, up 26%, and Nine Energy Service, Inc. NINE, up 16%.
• In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

The ISM manufacturing PMI fell to 46.3 in March versus a reading of 47.7 in February, missing market estimates of 47.5.

Equities Trading UP

• Guardforce AI Co., Limited GFAI shares shot up 127% to $16.10 after jumping 50% on Friday.
• Shares of Barnwell Industries, Inc. BRN got a boost, shooting 27% to $2.80.
• VNET Group, Inc. VNET shares were also up, gaining 23% to $3.9750 after gaining 8% on Friday.

Equities Trading DOWN

• OncoSec Medical Incorporated ONCS shares dropped 52% to $1.2450 after the company announced the primary endpoint of the overall response rate from the Phase 2 KEYNOTE-695 clinical trial was not met.
• Shares of Palisade Bio, Inc. PALI were down 33% to $2.3750 after the company announced a $6 million registered direct offering and concurrent private placement priced above the market under Nasdaq rules.
• Ascendis Pharma A/S ASND was down, falling 33% to $72.25 after the FDA identified deficiencies in the company's New Drug Application for Transcon PTH.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 6.4% to $80.48 while gold traded up 0.8% at $2,001.80.

Silver traded up 0.2% to $24.195 on Thursday while copper fell 0.3% to $4.0820.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.9%. The German DAX fell 0.2%, French CAC 40 rose 0.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.4%.

The S&P Global Eurozone manufacturing PMI rose to 47.3 in March from a preliminary reading of 47.1. The S&P Global/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI rose to 47.9 in March versus the flash estimate of 48.0.

German manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 44.7 in March versus a preliminary level of 44.4, while French manufacturing PMI fell to 47.3 in March from a preliminary estimate of 47.7.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.52%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 0.04% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.72%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.2%.

The S&P Global India manufacturing PMI climbed to a three-month high of 56.4 in March. Retail sales in Australia rose by 0.2% month-over-month to AUD 35.14 billion for February. The au Jibun Bank Japan manufacturing PMI rose to 49.2 in March versus February’s reading of 47.7.

Economics

• The S&P Global manufacturing PMI slipped to 49.2 in March compared to the flash reading of 49.3.
• The ISM manufacturing PMI fell to 46.3 in March versus a reading of 47.7 in February, missing market estimates of 47.5.
• Construction spending fell by 0.1% month-over-month to an annual rate of $1.844 trillion in February.

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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 106,249,740 cases with around 1,155,320 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,722,600 cases and 530,880 deaths, while France reported over 39,806,280 COVID-19 cases with 165,670 deaths. In total, there were at least 684,104,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,832,410 deaths.