US Stocks Start September On A Weak Note After Recording Losses For Four Straight Sessions

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 150 points on Thursday

The Dow traded down 0.47% to 31,361.76 while the NASDAQ fell 1.13% to 11,682.33. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.74% to 3,925.63.

Also check this: Fear & Greed Index Drops Further As US Stocks Record Losses For Fourth Straight Session

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Snap Inc. SNAP, up 4% and Meta Platforms, Inc. META up 1%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares tumbled by 3.1%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5 thousand to 232 thousand in the week ended August 27th.

Equities Trading UP

• Shuttle Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SHPH shares shot up 106% to $79.16 amid post-IPO volatility.
• Shares of ShiftPixy, Inc. PIXY got a boost, shooting 92% to $26.87. ShiftPixy announced a 1-for-100 reverse stock split.
• Hempacco Co., Inc. HPCO shares were also up, gaining 63% to $8.33 after dropping 34% on Wednesday. Hempacco's common shares began trading on the Nasdaq Tuesday. The company had planned to offer 1 million shares of common stock at a public offering price of $6 per share for total gross proceeds of $6 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Semtech Corporation SMTC shares tumbled 35% to $29.80 after the company issued Q3 sales guidance below analyst estimates. Cowen & Co. and Oppenheimer also downgraded the stock.
• Shares of Okta, Inc. OKTA were down 29% to $64.64 after the company reported Q2 earnings results and issued Q3 and FY23 financial guidance. Several analysts also lowered their price targets on the stock.
• Greenpro Capital Corp. GRNQ was down, falling 26% to $1.89.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.9% to $86.96, while gold traded down 1.1% at $1,707.60.

Silver traded down 1.8% to $17.555 on Thursday while copper fell 2.3% to $3.4370.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.5%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.7%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.8%. The German DAX dropped 1.3%, French CAC 40 fell 1.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.9%.

The unemployment rate in the Eurozone dropped to a record low of 6.6% in July from revised 6.7% in the prior month, while Eurozone manufacturing PMI was revised lower to 49.6 in August from an initial reading of 49.7.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 47.3 in August versus a preliminary reading of 46, while French manufacturing PMI climbed to 50.6 in August from a preliminary estimate of 49. The S&P Global/BME German manufacturing PMI was revised lower to 49.1 in August versus a preliminary level of 49.8, while Italian manufacturing PMI declined to 48 in August from 48.5 a month ago.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5 thousand to 232 thousand in the week ended August 27th.
• Non-farm labor productivity declined an annualized 4.1% in the second quarter, while unit labor costs rose by 10.2%.
• The S&P Global US manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 51.5 in August from a preliminary reading of 51.3.
• The ISM manufacturing PMI fell to 52.8 in August from 53 in June.
• U.S. construction spending dropped 0.4% from the prior month to an annual rate of $1.78 billion in July.
• 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 Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
• Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Check out this: US Stocks End August On Weak Note Amid Low Volatility

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 96,347,970 cases with around 1,071,420 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,436,330 cases and 527,910 deaths, while France reported over 34,529,200 COVID-19 cases with 154,090 deaths. In total, there were at least 608,296,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,496,480 deaths.