Nasdaq Rises 2%; Consolidated Communications Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 300 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 1.09% to 34,013.93 while the NASDAQ rose 2% to 12,167. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.30% to 4,145.27.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Consumer discretionary shares rose by 2.3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. FFIE, up 13%, and WW International, Inc. WW, up 12%.
• In trading on Thursday, real estate fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

U.S. natural-gas supplies climbed 25 billion cubic feet last week, the EIA said.

Equities Trading UP

• Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. CNSL shares shot up 39% to $3.8450 after Searchlight Capital and BCI submitted a non-binding proposal to acquire all outstanding shares of Consolidated Communications not owned by Searchlight or BCI for $4 per share.
• Shares of Ocean Biomedical, Inc. OCEA got a boost, shooting 50% to $6.78. Ocean Biomedical’s co-founder, Jonathan Kurtis, has received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for his U.S. patent application covering a therapeutic and prophylactic monoclonal antibody that kills falciparum malaria parasites.
• SAB Biotherapeutics, Inc. SABS shares were also up, gaining 106% to $1.34 after the company said it has been granted Fast Track designation from the FDA for SAB-176 influenza immunotherapy with high cross-reactivity to multiple strains of influenza.

Equities Trading DOWN

• GlucoTrack, Inc. GCTK shares dropped 50% to $1.34 after the company priced 7,352,942 share offering at $1.36 per share.
• Shares of ViewRay, Inc. VRAY were down 41% to $1.78 after the company lowered its FY23 revenue guidance to approximately 0%-15% growth compared to its guidance of 25%-40% growth and announced it will explore strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value.
• Sportsman's Warehouse Holdings, Inc. SPWH was down, falling 14% to $7.17 after the company issued weak Q1 guidance and announced CEO Jon Barker will retire.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.2% to $82.25 while gold traded up 1.4% at $2,052.50.

Silver traded up 1.8% to $25.925 on Thursday while copper rose 1.3% to $4.1320.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.40%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.24% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.34%. The German DAX rose 0.16%, French CAC 40 rose 1.13% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.01%.

Industrial production in the Eurozone increased by 1.5% from a month ago in February, while industrial production in Italy slipped 0.2% from a month earlier. German consumer price inflation came in at 7.4% year-over-year in March.

The UK trade deficit increased to £4.81 billion in February from a revised £3.49 billion gap in the prior month, while industrial production dropped 0.2% month-over-month in February. The UK economy stalled in February versus a revised 0.4% expansion in January.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.26%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.17% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropping 0.27%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.1%.

China's trade surplus increased to $88.19 billion in March from $44.35 billion in the year-ago. Australian unemployment rate came in unchanged at 3.5% in March. Indian merchandise trade deficit increased to $19.70 billion in March from $18.51 billion in the year-ago month.

Economics

• Producer prices for final demand declined 0.5% month-over-month in March, recording the biggest drop since April 2020.
• U.S. jobless claims climbed by 11 thousand to 239 thousand in the week ending April 8, 2023.
• U.S. natural-gas supplies climbed 25 billion cubic feet last week, 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 106,418,590 cases with around 1,157,460 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,786,160 cases and 531,030 deaths, while France reported over 39,867,460 COVID-19 cases with 165,910 deaths. In total, there were at least 685,297,580 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,840,150 deaths.