Dow Edges Lower; US Current Account Deficit Widens In Q1

Author: Avi Kapoor | June 20, 2024 09:42am

U.S. stocks traded mixed this morning, with the S&P 500 gaining around 0.1% on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.10% to 38,795.35 while the NASDAQ rose 0.16% to 17,890.82. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.12% to 5,493.76.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares jumped by 0.6% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, communication services shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

The U.S. current account deficit rose by $15.8 billion to $237.6 billion during the first quarter, and versus market estimates of a $206.4 billion gap.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• MGO Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:MGOL) shares shot up 236% to $1.54 after the company said it expects the pending acquisition of Spetner Associates to close in the second half of 2024, projecting it to increase annualized revenue to approximately $28 million.
• Shares of Griid Infrastructure Inc. (NASDAQ:GRDI) got a boost, surging 88% to $1.05 after falling more than 10% on Tuesday.
• Reliance Global Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:RELI) shares were also up, gaining 77% to $0.69. Reliance Global Group announced major enhancement of capital structure following cashless exercise of warrants.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Mustang Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBIO) shares dropped 26% to $0.6250 after the company announced a $2.5 million registered direct offering of 6.130 million shares at $0.41 per share.
• Shares of NLS Pharmaceutics AG (NASDAQ:NLSP) were down 28% to $0.1940 after jumping 82% on Tuesday.
• Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SONN) was down, falling 26% to $1.14. Sonnet BioTherapeutics announced exercise of warrants for gross proceeds of $3.4 million.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $81.63 while gold traded up 0.3% at $2,353.00.

Silver traded up 2.5% to $30.305 on Thursday, while copper rose 0.4% to $4.5060.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.5%, Germany's DAX rose 0.6% and France's CAC 40 gained 1.1%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.5%, while London's FTSE 100 climbed 0.4%.

The Bank of England held the Bank Rate at 5.25% during its recent meeting, as projected. Producer prices in Germany fell by 2.2% year-over-year in May compared to a 3.3% decline in the earlier month.

Passenger car registrations in the European Union fell 3.0% year-over-year to a three-month low level of 911.7 thousand units in May.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei gaining 0.16%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declining 0.52%, China's Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.42% and India's S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.18%.

The People’s Bank of China maintained key lending rates at the June fixing. Hong Kong's unemployment rate came in unchanged at 3% during the three months ending May. Singapore's unemployment rate increased to 2.1% in the first quarter of 2024 versus 2.0% in the prior period.

Economics

• The U.S. current account deficit rose by $15.8 billion to $237.6 billion during the first quarter, and versus market estimates of a $206.4 billion gap.
• The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index fell 3.2 points to a reading of 1.3 in June, missing market expectations of 5.
• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 238,000 in the second week of June, compared to market estimates of 235,000.
• Housing starts in declined 5.5% to an annualized rate of 1.277 million in May, while building permits fell by 3.8% to an annual rate of 1.386 million.

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Posted In: GRDI MBIO MGOL NLSP RELI SONN