Dow Drops 75 Points; US Economy Adds 209,000 Jobs In June

U.S. stocks traded mostly lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 75 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.22% to 33,847.30 while the NASDAQ fell 0.01% to 13,678.58. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.13% to 4,405.85.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose by 0.4% on Friday.
• In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell by 0.7%.

 

Top Headline

The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in June versus a revised gain of 306,000 jobs in May, recording the lowest reading since Dec. 2020. Analysts were expecting for a gain of 225,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in June from 3.7% in May, in-line with market estimates.

Average hourly earnings increased by 0.4% to $33.58 in June, above market expectations for a 0.3% growth.

 

Equities Trading UP

• Prestige Wealth Inc. PWM shares shot up 106% to $10.30. Prestige Wealth reported pricing of $5 million initial public offering of 1 million shares of common stock at a price of $5 per share.
• Shares of Gorilla Technology Group Inc. GRRR got a boost, shooting 70% to $3.56 after the company signed a $270 million contract with the Government of Egypt to implement a Smart Government Security Convergence solution.
• Castle Biosciences, Inc. CSTL shares were also up, gaining 41% to $18.75. Castle Biosciences will present new DecisionDx-SCC and DecisionDx-melanoma data at the American Head & Neck Society's International Conference on head and neck cancer.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited ASLN shares dropped 9% to $2.63. ASLAN Pharmaceuticals recently said the eblasakimab 400mg Q4W dosing arm did not meet the primary or secondary endpoints with statistical significance.
• Shares of Levi Strauss & Co. LEVI were down 8% to $13.16. Levi Strauss reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter, but lowered its annual profit outlook.
• FOXO Technologies Inc. FOXO was down, falling 20% to $0.25.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $71.95 while gold traded up 0.5% at $1,925.30.

Silver traded up 0.4% to $22.98 on Friday while copper rose 0.6% to $3.7570.

 

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index declined 0.5% The German DAX gained 0.5% French CAC 40 climbed 0.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.6%.

French current account deficit shrank to EUR 0.7 billion in May versus a revised EUR 1.7 billion in the prior month, while trade deficit narrowed to EUR 8.4 billion from EUR 10.6 billion. Industrial production in Germany dropped by 0.2% month-over-month during May.

The Halifax house price index dropped by 2.6% year-over-year in June, recording the largest decline since June 2011.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.17%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.90%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.28%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.7%.

Foreign exchange reserves in Hong Kong fell to $417.3 billion in June from $421 billion in the prior month, while China's foreign exchange reserves increased to $3.193 trillion at the end of June 2023 from $3.177 trillion in the earlier month.

The index of leading economic indicators in Japan rose to 109.5 in May from 108.1a month ago, while index of coincident economic indicators declined to 113.8 in May from 114.2. Household spending in Japan dropped by 4.0% year-over-year in May, while average cash earnings rose by 2.5% year-over-year in May.

 

Economics

• The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in June versus a revised gain of 306,000 jobs in May, recording the lowest reading since Dec. 2020. Analysts were expecting for a gain of 225,000 jobs.
• Average hourly earnings increased by 0.4% to $33.58 in June, above market expectations for a 0.3% growth.
• The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in June from 3.7% in May, in-line with market estimates.

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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 107,352,160 cases with around 1,168,480 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,994,400 cases and 531,910 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 691,205,820 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,898,260 deaths.