As the final trading hours descended, the Dow Jones index plunged more than 200 points on Thursday, setting a bleak tone for the stock market.
The Dow saw a 0.59% decrease to 38,894.58, while the NASDAQ slipped 0.10% to 16,261.88. The S&P 500 also experienced a decline, with a drop of 0.28% to 5,197.03.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
In a surprising turn of events, communication services shares made a notable jump by 1.1% on Thursday, standing out amidst the overall market downturn.
Meanwhile, health care shares managed a modest incline of just 0.1% during the trading day.
Top Headline
Shares of RPM International Inc. RPM took a hard hit, plummeting over 5% on Thursday following the release of the company’s third-quarter fiscal year 2024 results.
The report showed a 0.4% year-over-year increase in sales to $1.523 billion, slightly edging past the consensus estimate of $1.518 billion. Additionally, the company delivered an adjusted EPS of 52 cents, surpassing the anticipated 46 cents.
Equities Trading UP
TC Biopharm (Holdings) Plc TCBP saw a dramatic surge of 59% to $2.0597. This surge was driven by the announcement of the execution of a non-binding letter of intent for the acquisition of NK Platform Technologies.
Similarly, Allurion Technologies Inc. ALUR experienced a significant boost, skyrocketing by 101% to $3.46. The surge followed the company’s announcement of the commercial availability of its Virtual Care Suite in the United States. Furthermore, Chardan Capital initiated its coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and a $5 price target.
Candel Therapeutics, Inc. CADL also saw a notable increase, with shares rising by 113% to $3.57 after the release of interim data from the randomized phase 2 clinical trial of CAN-2409 in non-metastatic prostate cancer.
Equities Trading DOWN
eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Inc. EFTR experienced a severe decline of 81% to $3.1089. This downturn came after the company announced topline results from the primary analysis of the randomized Phase 2 KICKSTART trial of tomivosertib combined with pembrolizumab in non-small cell lung cancer.
Not to be outdone, shares of Achilles Therapeutics plc ACHL dropped by 24% to $0.9106 after the company’s fourth-quarter financial results were made public. The decline followed the announcement of interim Phase I/IIa data on the use of clonal neoantigen reactive T cells from the CHIRON study in advanced unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and the THETIS study in recurrent or metastatic malignant melanoma.
KWESST Micro Systems Inc. KWE experienced a downturn as well, falling by 21% to $0.89 following the company’s announcement of a proposed US public offering.
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Commodities
In the realm of commodities, oil saw an upsurge by 1.4% reaching $86.59, while gold inched up by 0.2% to $2,319.10.
On Thursday, silver rallied by 1.2% to $27.39, with copper also making gains of 1% to $4.2365.
Euro zone
European markets closed primarily in the green today, with the eurozone’s STOXX 600 witnessing a rise of 0.16%. London’s FTSE 100 recorded a growth of 0.48%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index surged by 0.53%. In contrast, the German DAX experienced a rise of 0.19%, the French CAC 40 fell by 0.02%, and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index saw a decline of 0.08%.
Industrial producer prices in the eurozone decreased by 1.0% from the prior month in February, compared to a 0.9% decline in the previous month. Meanwhile, the services PMI climbed to 51.5 in March, surpassing the 50.2 recorded in the earlier month.
The HCOB France services PMI dwindled to 48.3 in March from 48.4 the month before, while the German services PMI saw an upturn to 50.1 in March from a preliminary reading of 49.8. The S&P Global UK services PMI decreased to 53.1 in March from 53.8 in the previous month.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets experienced a positive finish on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 advancing by 0.81% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex rising by 0.5%.
The HSBC Indian services PMI rose to 61.2 in March, surpassing the preliminary reading of 60.3 and the final reading of 60.6 in the prior month.
Economics
U.S. jobless claims saw an increase of 11,000 from the revised reading of the previous week to 221,000 in March, marking the highest number reported in two months.
Likewise, the U.S. trade deficit expanded to $68.9 billion in February compared to a revised gap of $67.6 billion in the prior month.
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