Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 3%; RCM Technologies Shares Jump

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading following the release of weekly jobless claims data.

The Dow traded down 0.35% to 35,104.22 while the NASDAQ fell 0.27% to 14,404.00. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.20% to 4,593.30.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 0.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Vertex Energy, Inc. VTNR, up 21% and American Resources Corporation AREC up 12%.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell 1%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims increased by 14 thousand to 202 thousand in the week ended March 26th. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting a reading of 197 thousand.

Equities Trading UP

Longeveron Inc. LGVN shares shot up 72% to $11.57 after the company announced the publication of results from a Phase 1 trial testing Lomecel-B on patients with mild Alzheimer's disease in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Shares of RCM Technologies, Inc. RCMT got a boost, shooting 11% to $9.50 after the company reported Q4 results.

Icosavax, Inc. ICVX shares were also up, gaining 30% to $6.95 following Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Oxbridge Re Holdings Limited OXBR shares tumbled 22% to $5.45 after the company reported results for the fourth quarter.

Shares of Clarus Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. CRXT were down 25% to $1.55 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

Motorsport Games Inc. MSGM was down, falling 34% to $1.3650 after the company reported Q4 financial results. Canaccord Genuity and Benchmark downgraded the stock.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.7% to $103.83, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,949.60.

Silver traded up 0.2% Thursday to $25.16 while copper fell 0.2% to $4.7430.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.9%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.2%. The German DAX dropped 1.3%, French CAC 40 fell 1.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.1%.

Economics

US initial jobless claims increased by 14 thousand to 202 thousand in the week ended March 26th. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting a reading of 197 thousand.

Personal income rose 0.5% from a month ago in February, while personal spending rose 0.2% month-over-month. The personal consumption expenditure price index surged 6.4% year-over-year in February.

The Chicago PMI for March is scheduled for release at 9:45 a.m. ET. After a slower-than-expected reading of 56.3 in February, analysts expect the Chicago PMI rising slightly to 57.0 in March.

US natural-gas supplies climbed 26 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Data on farm prices for February will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,686,620 cases with around 1,005,050 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,023,210 cases and 521,130 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,882,390 COVID-19 cases with 659,290 deaths. In total, there were at least 485,724,930 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,158,100 deaths.