Dow Tumbles Over 300 Points; US Jobless Claims Increase More Than Projected

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping over 300 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.96% to 33,958.13 while the NASDAQ fell 1.06% to 13,645.10. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.97% to 4,403.76.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Consumer staples shares fell by just 0.4% on Thursday.
• In trading on Thursday, real estate shares dipped by 1.9%.

 

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims increased by 12,000 from the previous week to 248,000 in the week ending July 1, versus market estimates of 245,000.

 

Equities Trading UP

• Caribou Biosciences, Inc. CRBU shares shot up 56% to $6.38 after the company announced a $25 million equity investment from Pfizer.
• Shares of Genius Sports Limited GENI got a boost, shooting 13% to $6.57 after the company agreed to a multi-year extension of the National Football League partnership
• Sweetgreen, Inc. SG shares were also up, gaining 12% to $14.61 after B of A Securities upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy and raised its price target from $9 to $17.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Allarity Therapeutics, Inc. ALLR shares dropped 54% to $3.83 after the company priced its public offering of 2.44 million shares and warrants to purchase up to 2.44 million shares at combined price of $4.50.
• Shares of VBI Vaccines Inc. VBIV were down 52% to $1.1550. VBI Vaccines reported pricing of $18 million public offering and $3 million concurrent registered direct offering.
• ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited ASLN was down, falling 22% to $2.98 after the company said the eblasakimab 400mg Q4W dosing arm did not meet the primary or secondary endpoints with statistical significance.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $71.16 while gold traded down 0.8% at $1,911.60.

Silver traded down 2.1% to $22.92 on Thursday while copper fell 0.7% to $3.7435.

 

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.6%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index declined 1.2% The German DAX fell 1.6% French CAC 40 dipped 2.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.4%.

Retail sales in the Eurozone came in unchanged for the second straight month in May, compared to market expectations for a 0.2% growth. The HCOB Eurozone construction PMI fell to 44.2 in June from 44.6 in the previous month.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK construction PMI dropped to 48.9 in June from 51.6 in the previous month, while German construction PMI declined to 41.4 in June, recording the weakest reading since Feb. 2021. French construction PMI rose to 43.7 in June from 42.6 in May.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.7%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 3.02%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.54%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.5%.

Australia's trade surplus increased to AUD 11.79 billion in May compared to revised AUD 10.45 billion in the prior month.

 

Economics

• U.S. mortgage applications dropped 4.4% in the week ended June 30, 2023.
• Private businesses in the U.S. added 497,000 jobs in June, the most since Feb. 2022, and higher than market estimates of 228,000.
• U.S. initial jobless claims increased by 12,000 from the previous week to 248,000 in the week ending July 1, versus market estimates of 245,000.
• The U.S. trade gap narrowed to $69 billion in May from $74.4 billion in the previous month.
• The S&P Global services PMI was revised higher to 54.4 in June versus a preliminary reading of 54.1.

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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 107,346,010 cases with around 1,168,410 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,994,400 cases and 531,910 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 691,192,020 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,898,070 deaths.