U.S. stocks pared some losses, with the Dow Jones turning higher toward the end of trading on Thursday.
The Dow traded up 0.09% to 30,211.16 while the NASDAQ fell 1% to 11,107.18. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.40% to 3,774.70.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Health care shares rose by 0.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA), up 35% and Talkspace, Inc. (NASDAQ:TALK) up 17%.
In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 2.2%.
Top Headline
The US current account deficit shrank to $251.1 billion in the second quarter, following a record gap of $282.5 billion in the first quarter.
Equities Trading UP
- ShiftPixy, Inc. (NASDAQ:PIXY) shares shot up 22% to $16.72. ShiftPixy, on Wednesday, announced pricing of $5 million private placement.
- Shares of Inventiva S.A. (NASDAQ:IVA) got a boost, shooting 17% to $4.4750 after the company reported its 2022 first-half financial results and provided a corporate update.
- Spero Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPRO) shares were also up, gaining 164% to $2.17 after the company announced it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with GSK for Spero's late-stage antibiotic asset, tebipenem HBr. Spero Therapeutics will receive $66 million upfront, with potential for future milestone payments, and tiered royalties.
Equities Trading DOWN
- Luminar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAZR) shares tumbled 20% to $7.47 after Northland Capital downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform and lowered its price target from $13 to $10.
- Shares of MediWound Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDWD) were down 20% to $1.3998 after the company announced concurrent registered direct and private placement offerings priced at-the-market of roughly $30 million
- Top Ships Inc. (NASDAQ:TOPS) was down, falling 18% to $0.1750 after the company announced a 1-for-20 reverse stock split
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $83.49, while gold traded up 0.1% at $1,677.80.
Silver traded up 0.5% to $19.585 on Thursday while copper fell 0.2% to $3.46.
Euro zone
European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.79%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.08% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.24%. The German DAX dropped 1.84%, French CAC 40 fell 1.87% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.07%.
The manufacturing climate indicator in France declined for a third month to a reading of 102 in September from a revised 103 in August. The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone declined by 3.8 points to -28.8 in September. The Bank of England increased its key interest rate by 50bps to 2.25% during its September meeting.
Economics
- US initial jobless claims increased by 5,000 to 213,000 in the week ended September 17th, compared to market estimates of 218,000.
- The US current account deficit shrank to $251.1 billion in the second quarter, following a record gap of $282.5 billion in the first quarter.
- US natural-gas supplies climbed 103 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.
COVID-19 Update
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 97,721,710 cases with around 1,080,350 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,553,040 cases and 528,420 deaths, while France reported over 35,011,660 COVID-19 cases with 154,820 deaths. In total, there were at least 618,773,810 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,535,010 deaths.
