Dow Surges Over 500 Points; US Retail Sales Rise In July

Author: Avi Kapoor | August 15, 2024 09:46am

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 500 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.29% to 40,523.31 while the NASDAQ jumped 1.34% to 17,423.38. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.09% to 5,514.51.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed by 2.6% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 0.6%.

Top Headline

U.S. retail sales gained 1% month-over-month in July versus a revised 0.2% decline in June and higher than market estimates of a 0.3% gain.

Equities Trading UP

Cingulate Inc. (NASDAQ:CING) shares shot up 149% to $4.60 after the company was granted European patent No. 3261625 for CTx-1301, its lead asset for the treatment of ADHD.
Shares of VS MEDIA Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:VSME) got a boost, surging 61% to $1.1500.
SciSparc Ltd. (NASDAQ:SPRC) shares were also up, gaining 45% to $0.4671 after the company announced the courts approval to convene a meeting of shareholders to approve a merger with AutoMax.

Equities Trading DOWN

Turnstone Biologics Corp. (NASDAQ:TSBX) shares dropped 49% to $1.1137 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter EPS results.
Shares of SIGA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGA) were down 40% to $7.19 after the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced topline results from a preliminary analysis of the PALM 007 trial of Tecovirimat for Monkeypox virus did not meet its primary endpoint.
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE:LLAP) was down, falling 37% to $0.2522. Lockheed Martin announced plans to acquire Terran Orbital.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $77.89 while gold traded up 0.1% at $2,481.90.

Silver traded up 3.1% to $28.175 on Thursday, while copper rose 2.2% to $4.13.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 1.1%, Germany's DAX rose 1.3% and France's CAC 40 rose 1.1%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.8%.

The British economy grew by 0.9% year-over-year in the second quarter, recording the biggest annual growth rate since the third quarter of 2022. Labor productivity in the UK increased 0.3% on quarter during the second quarter. The UK’s trade deficit narrowed to £5.32 billion in June versus a revised £5.77 billion in the earlier month. Industrial production in the UK climbed 0.8% month-over-month for June.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 jumping 0.78%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.03% and China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.94%.

Industrial production in Japan fell by 4.2% month-over-month during June, while Japanese economy expanded by 3.1% on an annualized basis in the second quarter. China’s retail sales climbed by 2.7% year-over-year in July versus market estimates of 2.6%. China's industrial production rose by 5.1% year-over-year in July.

Economics

U.S. retail sales gained 1% month-over-month in July versus a revised 0.2% decline in June and higher than market estimates of a 0.3% gain.
The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index declined to -7 in August from 13.9 in July and versus market estimates of 7.
The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index rose to -4.7 in August, notching the highest level in six months.
Export prices increased 0.7% month-over-month in July, while import prices rose 0.1%.
U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 7,000 to 227,000 in the week ending August 10, versus market estimates of 235,000.
U.S industrial production declined by 0.6% from the prior month in July compared to a revised 0.3% gain in June.

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