Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.15% to 35,458.00 while the NASDAQ rose 0.02% to 15,044.79. The S&P, however, dropped 0.12% to 4,490.91.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 38,223,210 cases with around 632,270 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 32,558,530 cases and 436,360 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,645,530 COVID-19 cases with 576,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 213,967,020 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,464,240 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Financials shares rose 0.5% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Diginex Limited EQOS, up 5% and Bank7 Corp. BSVN up 5%.
In trading on Thursday, consumer staples fell 0.5%.
Top Headline
Dollar General Corporation DG reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Thursday.
Dollar General posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.69 per share, exceeding market estimates of $2.57 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $8.70 billion, versus estimates of $8.59 billion.
Dollar General said it expects FY21 sales growth of 0.5%-1.5% and EPS of $9.60-$10.20.
Equities Trading UP
Blue Water Acquisition Corp. BLUW shares shot up 74% to $18.18. Blue Water Acquisition is expected to hold a special meeting of its stockholders on Friday, August 27, 2021.
Shares of Lordstown Motors Corp. RIDE got a boost, shooting 30% to $7.18 after the company announced its board of directors has appointed Daniel A. Ninivaggi as CEO and as a member of the board. Ninivaggi is the former CEO of Icahn Enterprises L.P.
Ascendis Pharma A/S ASND shares were also up, gaining 25% to $153.66 after the company reported Q2 earnings results. Several analysts raised their price targets on the stock.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
SelectQuote, Inc. SLQT shares tumbled 44% to $8.04 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 earnings. RBC Capital downgraded SelectQuote from Outperform to Sector Perform and lowered the price target from $33 to $13.
Shares of Aditxt, Inc. ADTX were down 29% to $2.15 after the company priced its 4.58 million share offering at $2.40 per share.
Regencell Bioscience Holdings Limited RGC was down, falling 29% to $32.90. Regencell Bioscience shares jumped over 200% on Wednesday on abnormally-high volume.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1% to $67.67, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,789.00.
Silver traded down 0.2% Thursday to $23.73 while copper fell 0.3% to $4.2565.
Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.5%, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.8% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.7%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4%, French CAC 40 fell 0.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 0.6%.
Loans to households in the Eurozone climbed 4.2% in July after rising 4.0% in the prior month. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator for Germany fell to -1.2 for September versus a revised reading of -0.4 a month ago.
UK factories produced 53,438 cars during the month of July, down by 37.6% from a year earlier. Italy's industrial sales increased 3.1% in June, while French manufacturing climate indicator rose to 110 in August.
Economics
The US economy grew by an annualized 6.6% on quarter in the second quarter, compared to 6.5% in the advance estimate.
US initial jobless claims rose by 4,000 to 353,000 in the week ending August 21st.
Corporate profits in the US surged 9.7% to a record high of $2.42 trillion in the second quarter.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for August will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET. Analysts expect the index for August holding at July's level of 30.
The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.
The Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium kicks off today.
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