Mid-day market update: Dow tumbles over 200 points, momentus shares jump

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 200 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.66% to 34,269.64 while the NASDAQ fell 0.42% to 13,830.41. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.38% to 4,464.08.

Leading and lagging sectors

Health care shares jumped by 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Werewolf Therapeutics, Inc. up 29% and up 22%.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell 1.5%.

Top headline

US initial jobless claims fell by 5 thousand to 166 thousand in the week ended April 2nd. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 200 thousand.

Equities trading up

Momentus Inc. shares shot up 56% to $4.61 as the company signed multiple launch agreements with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), a Tesla CEO Elon Musk-led company.

Shares of System1, Inc. got a boost, shooting 15% to $22.86. The company on Monday reported Q4 and FY22 financials results.

Origin Agritech Limited shares were also up, gaining 13% to $8.22 after the company announced it has signed purchase agreements to sell two feedstock companies a total 50,000 metric tons of its corn for RMB150 million.

Equities trading down

Aptinyx Inc. shares tumbled 47% to $1.2385 after the company reported results from its Phase 2b study of NYX-2925 in painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy. The company reported NYX-2925 did not achieve the primary endpoint of the study.

Shares of Rite Aid Corporation were down 27% to $6.20 after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock from Hold to Sell and lowered its price target from $16 to $1.

Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc. was down, falling 14% to $3.14. Advent Technologies recently announced a definitive agreement with Hyundai Motor Company to use fuel cell technology in delivering green energy solutions to current high carbon applications.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $95.96, while gold traded up 0.9% to $1,939.70.

Silver traded up 0.7% Thursday to $24.63 while copper fell 0.5% to $4.7130.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.09%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.47%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.1%. The German DAX dropped 0.14%, French CAC 40 fell 0.41% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.26%.

Retail sales in the Eurozone rose 0.3% from a month ago in February following a 0.2% increase in January. Industrial production in Germany rose 0.2% from a month ago in February, versus a revised 1.4% increase in January.

The Halifax house price index in the UK rose 11% year-over-year in March, while labor productivity in the country rose 1.3% on quarter during the last three months of 2021.

Economics

US initial jobless claims fell by 5 thousand to 166 thousand in the week ended April 2nd. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 200 thousand.

US natural gas supplies dropped 33 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for February will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams is set to speak at 4:05 p.m. ET.