Nasdaq Turns Positive; Absolute Software Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite turning higher on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.70% to 33,297.64 while the NASDAQ rose 0.31% to 12,344.45. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.16% to 4,130.86.

Check This Out: Bitcoin, Ethereum Record Losses Following PPI Data; Pepe Becomes Top Loser

Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 1.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Magnite, Inc. MGNI, up 25%, and VTEX VTEX, up 8%.
• In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 1.9%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 22,000 to 264,000 in the week ending May 6, above market estimates of 245,000.

Equities Trading UP

• Polar Power, Inc. POLA shares shot up 37% to $1.4121 after the company announced the launch of a new line of mobile electric vehicle chargers.
• Shares of Sunshine Biopharma, Inc. SBFM got a boost, shooting 64% to $0.8309 after reporting a rise in Q1 sales
• Absolute Software Corporation ABST shares were also up, gaining 33% to $11.37 after the company announced it will be acquired by Crosspoint Capital Partners for an enterprise value of $870 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

• ImmunityBio, Inc. IBRX shares dropped 56% to $2.7450 after the company announced it received a complete response letter from the FDA on May 9th regarding its BLA for Anktiva in combination with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin.
• Shares of Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc. NEPT were down 44% to $0.2285 after the company reported pricing of $4 million public offering.
• Babylon Holdings Limited BBLN was down, falling 43% to $1.1649. BTIG downgraded Babylon Holdings from Neutral to Sell.

Also Check This Out: Esperion Therapeutics And 2 Other Stocks Under $3 Insiders Are Aggressively Buying

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2% to $71.12 while gold traded down 0.9% at $2,019.80.

Silver traded down 5% to $24.38 on Thursday while copper fell 3.6% to $3.7040.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.01%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.14% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.16% The German DAX fell 0.39%, French CAC 40 rose 0.28% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.61%.

The Bank of England increased the bank rate by 25bps to 4.5%, in line with expectations.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.02%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 0.09% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.29%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.1%.

China's annual inflation rate eased to 0.1% in April from 0.7% in the prior month, while producer prices dropped 3.6% year-over-year in April. Vehicle sales in China jumped 82.7% year-over-year to 2.16 million in April. The gauge for Japan's service sector sentiment rose 1.3 points to 54.6 in April. Japan's current account surplus fell to JPY 2,278.1 billion in March from JPY 3,235.3 billion in the year-ago month.

Economics

• Producer prices for final demand rose 0.2% month-over-month in April versus a revised 0.4% decline in the prior month.
• U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 22,000 to 264,000 in the week ending May 6, above market estimates of 245,000.
• U.S. natural gas supplies rose 78 billion cubic feet last week, the EIA said.

Now Read This: Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts Say Sell These 3 Tech Stocks With Over 3% Dividend Yields

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 106,787,010 cases with around 1,162,660 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,976,590 cases and 531,730 deaths, while France reported over 40,029,700 COVID-19 cases with 166,860 deaths. In total, there were at least 688,091,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,873,000 deaths.