Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 150 Points; NeuroMetrix Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones dropping around 150 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.49% to 31,336.92 while the NASDAQ rose 0.29% to 11,451.48. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.20% to 3,915.81.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares rose by 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Sweetgreen, Inc. NYSE:SG, up 13% and Lucid Group, Inc. NASDAQ:LCID up 12%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares dipped 1.9%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims rose by 21 thousand to 218 thousand in the week ended May 14th, compared to a revised 197 thousand in the prior period.

Equities Trading UP

NeuroMetrix, Inc. NASDAQ:NURO shares shot up 62% to $5.05 after the company announced the FDA has granted De Novo authorization to market the Quell neuromodulation device as an aid for reducing the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Shares of Grab Holdings Limited NASDAQ:GRAB got a boost, shooting 23% to $3.11 after reporting Q1 results.

Zealand Pharma A/S NASDAQ:ZEAL shares were also up, gaining 18% to $13.78 after the company announced the results from its phase 3 trial of Dasiglucagon in pediatric patients with congenital hyperinsulinism met the primary endpoint with statistical significance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bright Green Corporation NASDAQ:BGXX shares tumbled 66% to $16.38 after jumping 90% on Wednesday. Bright Green, went public on the NASDAQ Tuesday, becoming the first U.S. plant-touching company to list on a major U.S. stock exchange.

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. NASDAQ:CSCO were down 15% to $41.34. Cisco reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company also issued weak Q4 and FY22 earnings guidance.

Triumph Group, Inc. NYSE:TGI was down, falling 20% to $14.24 as Baird lowered the price target on the stock from $36 to $26. Triumph Group, on Wednesday, reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.2% to $112.00, while gold traded up 1.3% to $1,839.60.

Silver traded up 1.9% to $21.95 on Thursday while copper rose 2.5% to $4.2830.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 dropped 1.37%, London's FTSE 100 fell 1.82% and Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.83%. The German DAX dipped 0.90%, French CAC 40 fell 1.26% and Italy's FTSE MIB Index fell 0.09%.

The Eurozone current account surplus shrank to EUR 8.7 billion in March from EUR 39.7 billion in the year-ago month.

Economics

US initial jobless claims rose by 21 thousand to 218 thousand in the week ended May 14th, compared to a revised 197 thousand in the prior period.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index fell to 2.6 in May, the lowest in two years.

Existing home sales dropped by 2.4% to an annual rate of 5.61 million in April.

The index of leading economic indicators declined 0.3% for April.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 84,692,700 cases with around 1,028,010 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,129,560 cases and 524,300 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,741,810 COVID-19 cases with 665,370 deaths. In total, there were at least 525,197,370 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,295,030 deaths.