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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