S&P 500 Falls Over 1%; American Electric Power Shares Gain After Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than 350 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 1.21% to 49,515.62 while the NASDAQ fell 1.55% to 22,709.08. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.18% to 6,859.69.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares gained by 2.4% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, information technology stocks fell by 1.5%.

Top Headline

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) shares gained around 5% on Thursday after the Ohio-based utility reported upbeat fourth-quarter results.

Adjusted earnings came in at $1.19 per share, down from $1.24 a year ago but exceeding the Street estimate of $1.15. Revenue stood at $5.314 billion, ahead of the $4.887 billion analyst consensus.

Equities Trading UP
           

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.6% to $63.60 while gold traded down 0.1% at $5,097.40.

Silver traded down 1.4% to $82.745 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.4% to $5.9445.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.16%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.63%. London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.15%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.98% and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.04% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei falling 0.02%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.86%, China’s Shanghai Composite gaining 0.05% and India’s BSE Sensex declining 0.66%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 from the previous week to 227,000 in the first week of February, compared to market estimates of 222,000.
• U.S. natural-gas stocks dipped 249 billion cubic feet in the week ended Feb. 6, compared to market estimates of a 257 bcf decline.

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