Benzinga - by Lisa Levin, Benzinga Editor.
U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 50 points on Thursday.
The Dow traded up 0.04% to 34,903.09 while the NASDAQ rose 0.38% to 14,072.42. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.15% to 4,521.71.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 0.7% on Thursday.
In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell by 0.5%.
Top Headline
Core PCE prices in the U.S. rose by 0.2% month-over-month in July. Personal spending in current dollars rose by 0.8% in July, while personal income rose by 0.2% over a month in July.
Equities Trading UP
Acer Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ACER) shares shot up 164% to $1.61 after Zevra Therapeutics announced it will acquire the company. The transaction will have a total potential value for Acer stockholders of up to $91 million.
Shares of 1847 Holdings LLC (NASDAQ: EFSH) got a boost, shooting 44% to $0.1476. 1847 Holdings reported successful restructuring of promissory notes, with two institutional investors, totaling $1.75 million outstanding.
Canopy Growth Corporation (NASDAQ: CGC) shares were also up, gaining 27% to $0.5757 after the HHS called for moving marijuana to a lower-risk drug category.
Equities Trading DOWN
Lands' End, Inc. (NASDAQ: LE) shares dropped 24% to $7.83 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter results and issued weak guidance.
Shares of Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG) were down 14% to $135.05. Dollar General reported second-quarter FY23 sales growth of 3.9% year-on-year to $9.80 billion, missing the analyst consensus of $9.92 billion.
Duluth Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTH) was down, falling 13% to $6.36 after the company reported a year-over-year decrease in second-quarter EPS results and reiterated FY23 EPS guidance below estimates. Additionally, CFO Dave Loretta announced his decision to step down effective September 15.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $82.27 while gold traded down 0.3% at $1,966.70.
Silver traded up 0.4% to $24.83 on Thursday while copper fell 0.5% to $3.8250.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.09% London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.35% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.34% The German DAX rose 0.51% French CAC 40 fell 0.44%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.13%.
The annual inflation rate in the Eurozone came in steady at 5.3% in August, while unemployment rate stood at a record low level of 6.4% in July. German unemployment rate came in unchanged at 5.7% in August.
The French economy grew by 0.5% on quarter in the second quarter, while consumer price inflation rose to 4.8% year-over-year in August. The annual inflation rate in Italy eased to 5.5% in August from 5.9% in the prior month, while jobless rate rose to 7.6% in July from a revised 7.5% in the previous month.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.88%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.55% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.55%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.4%.
Retail sales in Hong Kong climbed 14% year-over-year in July versus a revised 17.4% surge in the prior month. The official NBS Non-Manufacturing PMI for China fell to 51.0 in August from 51.5 in the prior month.
Japanese housing starts fell by 6.7% year-over-year in July, while retail sales climbed 6.8% year-over-year in July. Industrial production in Japan fell by 2.0% month-over-month in July.
Economics
U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 4,000 from the previous week’s revised reading to 228,000 on the week ending Aug. 26, compared to market estimates of 235,000.
Core PCE prices in the U.S. rose by 0.2% month-over-month in July.
Personal spending in current dollars rose by 0.8% in July, while personal income rose by 0.2% over a month in July.
The Chicago Business Barometer climbed to 48.7 in August from 42.8 in July.
U.S. natural gas supplies climbed 32 billion cubic feet last week, the EIA said.
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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 108,070,840 cases with around 1,173,590 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,997,110 cases and 531,920 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 694,605,410 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,911,440 deaths.
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