Crude Oil Edges Lower; Bio-Path Holdings Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the S&P 500 gaining around 0.5% on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.64% to 37,996.39 while the NASDAQ rose 0.41% to 15,747.36. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.46% to 5,045.07.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

           

Communication services shares climbed by 1.3% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

D.R. Horton, Inc. DHI reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results.

D.R. Horton posted GAAP EPS of $3.52, topping market estimates of $3.07. The company's sales came in at $9.100 billion versus expectations of $8.266 billion.

Equities Trading UP
                       

AGBA Group Holding Limited AGBA shares shot up 95% to $0.7853 after the company announced it entered into a definitive merger agreement with Triller.

Shares of 23andMe Holding Co. ME got a boost, surging 46% to $0.5194 after CEO Anne Wojcicki said she is considering a proposal to take the company private.

Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. BPTH shares were also up, gaining 81% to $5.86 after the company announced the completion of its second dose cohort in Phase 1/1b clinical trial of BP1002 evaluating the ability of BP1002 to treat refractory/relapsed acute myeloid leukemia patients

Equities Trading DOWN

SuperCom Ltd. SPCB shares dropped 29% to $0.2545. SuperCom announced pricing of $2.9 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Lithium Americas Corp.  LAC were down 27% to $4.8150 after the company priced a $275 million public offering.

NRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. NRXP was down, falling 25% to $3.1415. NRx Pharmaceuticals announced pricing of $2 million underwritten public offering of common stock at a public offering price of $3.30 per share.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $82.46 while gold traded up 0.4% at $2,398.00.

Silver traded up 0.3% to $28.48 on Thursday, while copper rose 2.1% to $4.4315.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.31%, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.42% while Spain's IBEX 35 Index gained 1.30% The German DAX gained 0.49% French CAC 40 climbed 0.69% while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.68%.

Construction output in the Eurozone fell by 0.4% from the prior year in February compared to a revised 0.3% decline in the earlier month. The current account surplus in the Eurozone increased to €31.6 billion in February versus €10.7 billion in the year-ago period. Passenger car registrations in the European Union fell 5.2% year-over-year to 1 million units for March.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.31%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.82%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.09% and India's S&P BSE Sensex falling 0.62%.

Hong Kong's unemployment rate rose to 3% in the three months ending March from 2.9% in the prior five periods.

Economics

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index increased 12 points to a reading of 15.5 in April, topping market estimates of 1.5.

U.S. initial jobless claims came in unchanged from the previous week at 212,000 for the week ending April 18, down from market expectations of 215,000.

Existing-home sales in the U.S. fell 4.3% to an annualized rate of 4.19 million units in March.

U.S. natural-gas stocks increased 50 billion cubic feet during the week ended April 12, 2024.

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