S&P 500 Gains 1%; Kroger Earnings Top Views

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 250 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.34% to 38,793.79 while the NASDAQ rose 1.63% to 16,292.61. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.06% to 5,158.91.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 1.9% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell by 0.3%.

Top Headline

Kroger Company KR reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Kroger reported fourth-quarter FY23 sales growth of 6.4% year-on-year to $37.064 billion, slightly missing the analyst consensus estimate of $37.112 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.34 and Adjusted EPS of $1.14, excluding the 53rd week, beat the consensus of $1.13.

Equities Trading UP

Lytus Technologies Holdings PTV. Ltd. LYT shares shot up 348% to $10.34 after the company announced the launch of Lytus Cloud.

Shares of Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. MNMD got a boost, surging 50% to $8.89 after the company received FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for its MM120 program in generalized anxiety disorder. The company also announced 12-week durability data from its Phase 2B study of MM120.

Brera Holdings PLC BREA shares were also up, gaining 83% to $1.87 after the company announced that its Executive Chairman, Daniel McClory, acquired a majority stake in the company.

Equities Trading DOWN

Victoria's Secret & Co. VSCO shares dropped 31% to $17.79 after reporting fourth-quarter results.

Shares of Methode Electronics, Inc. MEI were down 33% to $14.18 following weak quarterly results.

Avid Bioservices, Inc. CDMO was down, falling 29% to $6.20 after the company reported certain preliminary third-quarter financial results and announced a proposed $160 million private placement of convertible notes.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $79.11 while gold traded up 0.3% at $2,164.60.

Silver traded up 0.4% to $24.59 on Thursday while copper rose 1.3% to $3.9235.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.99%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.17% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.20% The German DAX gained 0.71% French CAC 40 rose 0.77% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.16%.

The Halifax House Price Index in the UK increased by 1.7% year-over-year in February. Factory orders in Germany dipped 11.3% month-over-month in January.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 1.23%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipping 1.27%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.41% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.05%.

Chinese trade surplus widened to $125.16 billion in January-February combined compared to $103.8 billion in the year-ago period. Reserve assets in Japan declined to $1.281 trillion in February versus $1.292 trillion a month ago, while Japan’s average cash earnings rose by 2% year-over-year in January.

Economics

U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity rose by 3.2% in the fourth versus a revised 4.9% increase in the third quarter.

Unit labor costs rose an annualized 0.4% in the fourth quarter compared to a 1.1% decline in the prior period.

U.S. initial jobless claims came in unchanged at 217,000 in the latest week, higher than market estimates of 215,000.

U.S.-based companies announced plans to lower 84,638 jobs in February.

The US reported a trade gap of $67.4 billion in January compared to revised $63.5 billion gap in the prior month.

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