Dow Falls Over 300 Points; Kroger Posts Mixed Results

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones index falling more than 300 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.67% to 48,411.44 while the NASDAQ fell 0.29% to 22,741.80. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.31% to 6,847.63.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 1.5% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, health care stocks dipped by 1.3%.

Top Headline

The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) posted mixed results for the fourth quarter on Thursday.

The company posted adjusted EPS of $1.28, beating market estimates of $1.20. The company's sales came in at $34.725 billion missing estimates of $35.064 billion.

Kroger said it sees FY2026 adjusted EPS of $5.10-$5.30, versus estimates of $5.29.

Equities Trading UP
           

• Impact Biomedical Inc (NYSE:IBO) shares shot up 89% to $0.78 following a Securities and Exchange Commission filing disclosing amendments to its pending merger with Cayman Islands-based global pharmaceutical company Dr Ashleys Bio Labs Limited.
• Shares of Blue Hat Interactv Entrtnmnt Technlgy (NASDAQ:BHAT) got a boost, surging 85% to $0.054. Blue Hat postponed 1-for-50 reverse stock split effective date to March 9, from March 6, with 154.9 million shares outstanding.
• Gaxos.ai Inc. (NASDAQ:GXAI) shares were also up, gaining 73% to $2.15. Gaxos.ai Inc. announced that America First Defense secured a license for the Detachable Drone Highjacker to counter and defeat hostile Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Medicus Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:MDCX) shares dropped 34% to $0.90 following the release of topline data from its Phase 2 clinical trial for SKNJCT-003.
• Shares of FTC Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FTCI) were down 28% to $5.35 following quarterly earnings.
• Classover Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:KIDZ) was down, falling 26% to $0.071. Classover announced a 1-for-50 reverse stock split.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 4.6% to $78.10 while gold traded down 0.4% at $5,113.10.

Silver traded down 1.1% to $82.30 on Thursday, while copper fell 2% to $5.7920.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 0.5%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.2%. London's FTSE 100 fell 0.5%, Germany's DAX dipped 0.9% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.7% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 1.90%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gaining 0.28%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.64% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 1.14%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims came in unchanged from the previous week at 213,000 in the final week of February, compared to market estimates of 215,000.
• Unit labor costs in the nonfarm business sector increased by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, following a 1.8% decline in previous quarter.
• Labor productivity in the nonfarm business sector increased 2.8% in the fourth quarter following 5.2% growth in the previous quarter.
• U.S. export prices increased by 0.6% in January, while import prices climbed by 0.2% from the previous month.
• U.S.-based employers announced 48,307 job cuts in February compared to 108,435 in the previous month.

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