Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.74% to 34,557.75 while the NASDAQ fell 0.67% to 15,060.25. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.79% to 4,445.34.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 41,539,100 cases with around 666,620 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,347,320 cases and 443,920 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,034,610 COVID-19 cases with 588,590 deaths. In total, there were at least 226,445,290 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,661,150 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Consumer discretionary shares slipped by just 0.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Tuesday Morning Corporation TUEM +undefined% (Get Free Alerts for TUEM), up 23% and Vinco Ventures, Inc. BBIG +undefined% (Get Free Alerts for BBIG) up 9%.
In trading on Thursday, materials shares tumbled 1.7%.
Top Headline
US retail sales increased 0.7% in August of 2021, following a revised 1.8% decline in July. Analysts were expecting for a 0.8% decline in retail trade.
Equities Trading UP
Leap Therapeutics, Inc. LPTX +undefined% shares shot up 23% to $2.3650 after the company announced updated data from the first-line cohort of the DisTinGuish Phase 2a trial evaluating DKN-01 combined with BeiGene’s tislelizumab and chemotherapy in gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer (G/GEJ).
Shares of Tuesday Morning Corporation TUEM +undefined% (Get Free Alerts for TUEM) got a boost, shooting 24% to $2.1450 after a SEC filing showed CEO Fred Hand purchased 511,387 shares of the company's common stock at an average price of $1.76.
TMC the metals company Inc. TMC +undefined% shares were also up, gaining 26% to $12.58 amid increased retail investor interest in the stock on social media.
Equities Trading DOWN
Silverback Therapeutics, Inc. SBTX +24.06% shares tumbled 28% to $11.72. The company presented interim clinical results from a Phase 1/1b clinical study of SBT6050 as a monotherapy and in combination with Merck & Co's Keytruda in patients with advanced or metastatic HER2-expressing or amplified solid tumors.
Shares of Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AERI +23.79% were down 28% to $11.29 after the company announced topline results of its Phase 2b COMET-1 study evaluating AR-15512 (TRPM8 Agonist) ophthalmic solution for dry eye disease. The company said that the study failed to achieve statistical significance at pre-determined primary endpoints at Day 28.
MacroGenics, Inc. MGNX +26.66% was down, falling 24% to $20.84 as the company disclosed results from Cohort A Part 1 of the Phase 2/3 MAHOGANY clinical trial of margetuximab.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1% to $71.87, while gold traded down 2.3% to $1,752.80.
Silver traded down 4.8% Thursday to $22.65 while copper fell 2.7% to $4.2890.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.18% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.49%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.31%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.81% and Italy’s FTSE MIB jumped 0.99%.
The Eurozone trade surplus shrank to EUR 20.7 billion in July from EUR 26.8 billion in the year-ago period, while passenger car registrations in the European Union dropped 19.1% year-over-year to 623 thousand units in August. Italy’s trade surplus narrowed to EUR 8.762 billion in July from EUR 9.689 billion in the year-ago month.
Economics
US initial jobless claims increased to 332 thousand in the week ending September 11 versus a reading of 312 thousand in the previous week.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index climbed to 30.7 in September from 19.4 in August.
Retail sales increased 0.7% in August of 2021, following a revised 1.8% decline in July.
US business inventories rose 0.5% for July.
US natural-gas supplies surged 83 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.
The Treasury International Capital report for July will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.
Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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EUR/USD refocuses its attention to 1.1200 and above
Rising appetite for the risk-associated assets, the offered stance in the Greenback and Chinese stimulus all contributed to the resurgence of the upside momentum in EUR/USD, which managed to retest the 1.1190 zone on Thursday.
Gold holding at higher ground at around $2,670
Gold breaks to new high of $2,673 on Thursday. Falling interest rates globally, intensifying geopolitical conflicts and heightened Fed easing bets are the main factors.
Bitcoin displays bullish signals amid supportive macroeconomic developments and growing institutional demand
Bitcoin (BTC) trades slightly up, around $64,000 on Thursday, following a rejection from the upper consolidation level of $64,700 the previous day. BTC’s price has been consolidating between $62,000 and $64,700 for the past week.
RBA widely expected to keep key interest rate unchanged amid persisting price pressures
The Reserve Bank of Australia is likely to continue bucking the trend adopted by major central banks of the dovish policy pivot, opting to maintain the policy for the seventh consecutive meeting on Tuesday.
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