Benzinga - by Lisa Levin, Benzinga Editor.
U.S. stocks traded mostly lower this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than 200 points on Thursday.
Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.02% to 34,449.20 while the NASDAQ fell 1.57% to 13,655.13. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.72% to 4,433.23.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Utilities shares jumped by 0.8% on Thursday.
In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell by 2.3%.
Top Headline
U.S. initial jobless claims fell to the lowest level since February.
Jobless claims declined by 13,000 from the previous week's revised reading to 216,000 in the week ending Sept. 2, compared to market expectations of 234,000.
Equities Trading UP
Sigma Additive Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: SASI) shares shot up 67% to $0.3561 after the company announced to acquire NextTrip for around $48 million and sell assets of quality assurance software to strategic buyer.
Shares of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. (NASDAQ: WHLR) got a boost, shooting 100% to $9.09. Wheeler posted Series D redemption forms on its website.
American Rebel Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AREB) shares were also up, gaining 74% to $1.56 after the company's subsidiary Champion Safe has been bombarded with calls from safe dealers and customers looking for alternatives to safes made by Liberty Safe.
Equities Trading DOWN
Palisade Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALI) shares dropped 43% to $0.8202 after the company announced $2 million registered direct offering.
Shares of Sportsman's Warehouse Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPWH) were down 31% to $3.1091 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter earnings.
NeuBase Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBSE) was down, falling 28% to $1.72 possibly on profit taking after the stock rallied roughly 100% yesterday after Symetryx taking a 20% stake in NBSE stock.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $87.02 while gold traded up 0.1% at $1,944.40.
Silver traded down 0.8% to $23.305 on Thursday while copper fell 1.1% to $3.7450.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.1% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.3% The German DAX gained 0.1% French CAC 40 rose 0.3%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.1%.
The Eurozone economy expanded 0.1% on quarter during the three months to June, versus initial reading for a 0.3% growth. The number of employed persons increased by 0.2% from the prior quarter to 166.7 million during the three months to June.
France recorded a current account deficit of EUR 2.0 billion in July versus a EUR 0.3 billion surplus in the prior month. France's trade deficit increased to EUR 8.1 billion in July from EUR 6.8 billion in the prior month.
The Halifax House Price Index in the UK fell by 4.6% year-over-year in August, while industrial production in Germany fell by 0.8% month-over-month in July.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.75%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.34% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipping 1.13%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.6%.
Chinese foreign exchange reserves declined to $3.16 trillion at the end of August, the lowest in six months. China's trade surplus shrank to $68.36 billion in August from $78.65 billion in the year-ago month. Foreign exchange reserves in Hong Kong fell to $418.4 billion from $421.6 billion in the prior month.
The index of leading economic indicators in Japan fell to 107.6 in July versus a revised 108.8 in the prior month, while index of coincident economic indicators declined to 114.5 in July, the lowest level since April.
Economics
U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 13,000 from the previous week's revised reading to 216,000 in the week ending Sept. 2, compared to market expectations of 234,000.
Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased by 3.5% in the second quarter, while unit labor costs climbed an annualized 2.2% during the period.
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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 108,268,240 cases with around 1,174,460 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,997,460 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 695,034,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,913,060 deaths.
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