US Stocks Turn Higher; Dow Jumps Over 100 Points

U.S. stocks turned higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.48% to 32,026.53 while the NASDAQ rose 1.72% to 11,630.84. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 1.08% to 3,933.96.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 0.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Telesat Corporation TSAT, up 4%, and Golden Matrix Group, Inc. GMGI, up 4%.
• In trading on Thursday, energy shares tumbled by 2%.

Top Headline

US export prices climbed by 0.2% from a month ago in February, while import prices declined 0.1%.

Equities Trading UP

• PureCycle Technologies, Inc. PCT shares shot up 29% to $6.16 after the company provided a Q4 2022 update.
• Shares of UiPath Inc. PATH got a boost, shooting 17% to $17.06 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued strong revenue guidance.
• Lipella Pharmaceuticals Inc. LIPO shares were also up, gaining 42% to $2.5420 after the company announced the successful completion of a Phase 2A clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of its drug candidate LP-10 for hemorrhagic cystitis.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. ESPR shares tumbled 50% to $2.0050 after the company reported a disagreement with one of its partners over certain milestone payments.
• Shares of LivePerson, Inc. LPSN were down 51% to $4.79 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results and issued Q1 and FY23 revenue guidance below estimates.
• Proterra Inc. PTRA was down, falling 46% to $1.36 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results and issued FY23 revenue guidance below estimates.

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• Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.5% to $65.92 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,931.20.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $21.905 on Thursday while copper fell 0.4% to $3.8260.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.13%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.04% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.13%. The German DAX gained 0.2% French CAC 40 gained 0.51% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.21%.

The European Central Bank announced a half-percentage-point rate hike at its recent meeting. Spain's trade deficit shrank to EUR 3.96 billion in January from EUR 6.52 billion in the year-ago month. The annual inflation rate in Italy fell to 9.1% in February versus an initial reading of 9.2%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.80%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 1.72% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 1.12%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.2%.

Industrial production in Japan fell 5.3% month-over-month in January, while core machinery orders in the country climbed 9.5% month-over-month in January. Japanese trade deficit widened to JPY 897.7 billion in February from JPY 711.5 billion in the year-ago month.

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate fell to 3.3% during the three months ending Feb. 2023. Average new home prices in China fell by 1.2% year-over-year in February. Australian unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% in February.

Economics

• US initial jobless claims dropped by 20,000 from the prior week to 192,000 in the week ending March 11, compared to market expectations of 205,000.
• The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index rose 1 point to a reading of -23.2 in March.
• US export prices climbed by 0.2% from a month ago in February, while import prices declined 0.1%.
• Housing starts in the US rose 9.8% from a month ago to an annualized rate of 1.45 million in February, while building permits jumped 13.8% to an annual rate of 1.524 million.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 105,735,650 cases with around 1,150,130 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,692,710 cases and 530,790 deaths, while France reported over 39,675,450 COVID-19 cases with 165,260 deaths. In total, there were at least 682,048,540 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,815,400 deaths.