Mid-afternoon market update: Dow rises 1000 points; HyreCar shares slide

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 4.72% to 22201.10 while the NASDAQ rose 3.94% to 7674.91. The S&P also rose, gaining 4.7% to 2,591.93.

US reported a total of 69,100 coronavirus cases with around 1,040 deaths. Italy reported a total of at least 74,300 confirmed cases and 7,500 deaths, while Spain confirmed a total of over 49,500 coronavirus cases. Mainland China reported 67 new imported cases on Thursday. In total, there are at least 480,400 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 21,500 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares climbed 7.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Companhia Paranaense de Energia ELP 13.04%, up 14%, and MGE Energy, Inc. MGEE 13.84%, up 15%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares rose by just 3%.

Top Headline

Signet Jewelers Ltd. SIG 29.2% reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Signet reported quarterly earnings of $3.67 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $3.47 per share. Revenue came in at $2.153 billion, exceeding the consensus expectations of $2.12 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. GPMT 187.5% shares shot up 242% to $7.70. JMP Securities upgraded Granite Point Mortgage from Market Perform to Market Outperform and announced a $10 price target.

Shares of AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. MITT 63.65% got a boost, shooting 89% to $4.8394 after gaining 20% on Wednesday.

MFA Financial, Inc. MFA 61.54% shares were also up, gaining 108% to $2.3699 after surging around 217% on Wednesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

XpresSpa Group, Inc. XSPA 28.71% shares tumbled 26% to $0.2360. XpresSpa Group priced its 8.75 million common stock offering for gross proceeds of $1.79 million.

Shares of Astrotech Corporation ASTC 18.02% were down 21% to $3.1880. Astrotech shares jumped 265% on Wednesday after the company announced it is developing its BreathTest 1000 screening instrument for lung diseases including Coronavirus and Pneumonia.

HyreCar Inc. HYRE 15.84% was down, falling 16% to $1.70. HyreCar reported a loss for its fourth quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 7.6% to $22.63, while gold traded up 1.4% to $ 1,655.80.

Silver traded down 0.9% Thursday to $14.74, while copper fell 1% to $2.1815.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 2.55% the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.31%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.73%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.28%, and the French CAC 40 rose 2.51% while UK shares rose 2.24%.

Economics

The US economy expanded 2.1% percent in the fourth quarter, unrevised from the second estimate.

The US trade deficit on goods shrank to $59.89 billion in February, versus $65.9 billion in the previous month.

US initial jobless claims climbed to a record 3.28 million for the recent week, from a reading of 282,000 in the previous week.

US wholesale inventories fell 0.5% in February, versus a revised 0.5% decline in the prior month.

Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 29 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 20, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a fall of 27 billion cubic feet.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.