Dow Tumbles Over 100 Points; US Initial Jobless Claims Drop

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping over 100 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.38% to 33,356.06 while the NASDAQ fell 0.75% to 11,906.87. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.48% to 4,070.56.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Utilities shares rose by 0.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included ALLETE, Inc. ALE, up 2%, and PG&E Corporation PCGU, up 2%.
• In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary fell by 1.2%.

Top Headline

U.S. jobless claims dropped by 18 thousand to 228 thousand in the week ending April 1.

Equities Trading UP

• Guardforce AI Co., Limited GFAI shares shot up 31% to $11.64.
• Shares of Planet Labs PBC PL got a boost, shooting 11% to $4.0550. Planet Labs Form4 filing showed Product & Business President Kevin Weil reported the purchase of 274k shares at $3.6391 per share.
• AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC shares were also up, gaining 12% to $4.52 after a Delaware Court denied the company's request to proceed with its plan for increasing authorized common shares, a stock conversion and reverse split.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Scilex Holding Company SCLX shares dropped 18% to $10.15 on profit taking after the stock rallied yesterday.
• Shares of Richardson Electronics, Ltd. RELL were down 16% to $18.12 following Q3 results.
• Nuburu, Inc. BURU was down, falling 16% to $3.5686. NUBURU shares jumped 57% on Wednesday after the company announced it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense for a position on the multiple award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract for high energy laser beams.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $80.01 while gold traded down 0.5% at $2,026.50.

Silver traded down 0.8% to $24.845 on Thursday while copper fell 0.1% to $3.9865.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.6%. The German DAX rose 0.2%, French CAC 40 rose 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.7%.

The S&P Global Eurozone construction PMI fell to 45.0 in March from 47.6 the previous month, while French construction PMI rose to 45.3 in March from 45.2 a month ago. The S&P Global/CIPS UK construction PMI fell to 50.7 in March from 54.6 in the prior month, while Italian construction PMI dropped to 47.4 in March from 48.9 a month ago. The S&P Global German construction PMI slipped to 42.9 in March from February’s reading of 48.6.

The Halifax house price index increased by 1.6% from a year ago in March, while industrial production in Germany rose 2% month-over-month in February.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.22%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.28% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index adding 0.01%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.12%.

The Reserve Bank of India unexpectedly held its benchmark policy repo at 6.5% at its April meeting. The Caixin China general services PMI rose to 57.8 in March from 55.0 in the previous month, while S&P Global Hong Kong PMI fell to 53.5 in March. Australian trade surplus widened to AUD 13.87 billion in February from a revised AUD 11.27 billion in the previous month.

Economics

U.S. jobless claims dropped by 18 thousand to 228 thousand in the week ending April 1.

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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 106,305,770 cases with around 1,156,300 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,739,050 cases and 530,920 deaths, while France reported over 39,817,650 COVID-19 cases with 165,790 deaths. In total, there were at least 684,466,450 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,834,980 deaths.