Benzinga - by Lisa Levin, Benzinga Editor.
U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite falling over 150 points on Thursday.
Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.56% to 34,248.45 while the NASDAQ fell 1.13% to 13,316.35. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.87% to 4,363.78.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares rose by 0.5% on Thursday.
In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 1.8%.
Top Headline
U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 20,000 to 201,000 in the week ending Sept. 16, recording the lowest reading since late January and compared to market estimates of 225,000.
Equities Trading UP
MSP Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIFW) shares shot up 90% to $0.2885 after jumping 64% on Wednesday.
Shares of Near Intelligence, Inc. (NASDAQ: NIR) got a boost, shooting 53% to $0.32. Near Intelligence said it is a trusted partner of leading global commercial real estate companies seeking high-quality real estate analytics on any location, building or site.
Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: NEPT) shares were also up, gaining 33% to $5.22 after falling 11% on Wednesday. Neptune Wellness announced intention to spinout Sprout Organics pursuant to the Morgan Stanley agreed to transaction.
Equities Trading DOWN
Travere Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TVTX) shares dropped 43% to $7.39 after the company announced topline two-year confirmatory secondary endpoint results from its head-to-head Phase 3 PROTECT Study of Filspari (sparsentan) in IgA nephropathy (IgAN) versus Sanofi SA's (NASDAQ: SNY) Avapro (irbesartan).
Shares of QuantaSing Group Limited (NASDAQ: QSG) were down 34% to $2.20.
Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEEL) was down, falling 32% to $0.2084 after the company announced a $4.5 million registered direct offering of common stock and warrants to purchase common stock. Guggenheim downgraded Seelos Therapeutics from Buy to Neutral.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $90.68 while gold traded down 1.5% at $1,938.30.
Silver traded down 2.3% to $23.29 on Thursday while copper fell 2.3% to $3.6885.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.5% The German DAX fell 1.1% French CAC 40 declined 1.4%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 1.7%.
The Bank of England maintained its policy interest rate at 5.25% on Sept. 21. Spain's trade deficit shrank to EUR 4.9 billion in July from EUR 6.56 billion in the year-ago month. Construction output in Italy fell by 1.1% year-over-year in July. The manufacturing climate indicator in France climbed to 99 in September versus a revised 97 in a month ago.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 1.37%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.29% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.77%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, declined 0.85%.
The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong came in at 1.8% in August, remaining at its lowest level in four months. Hong Kong’s current account surplus increased to HKD 47.5 billion in the second quarter from HKD 34.7 billion in the year-ago period. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority kept its base rate unchanged at 5.75%.
Economics
U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 20,000 to 201,000 in the week ending Sept. 16, recording the lowest reading since late January and compared to market estimates of 225,000.
The U.S. current account deficit shrank to $212.1 billion in the second quarter from a revised reading of a $214.5 billion gap in the prior period and compared to the market estimates of a $221.0 billion gap.
The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index declined to -13.5 in September from 12 in the previous month and worse than market expectations of -0.7.
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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 108,530,790 cases with around 1,175,490 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,998,290 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 695,580,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,918,190 deaths.
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