Dow drops over 100 points, tech leads losses, Snowflake drops

The market trimmed some of its losses in the final hour but still finished in the red across the board. The Dow lost 130 points, or 0.5 %. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.8% and 1.3%, respectively. The small cap Russell 2000 also finished lower. — Jesse Pound

The major averages were down sharply as a sell-off in tech dampened market sentiment. The Dow traded more than 300 points lower, or 1.1%. The S&P 500 slid 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.1%. —Fred Imbert

Shares of Dave & Buster’s fell sharply on Thursday, losing 25% after a Wall Street Journal article warned of reference to a possible bankruptcy in a securities filing. Truist said in a note that the reaction is overblown and that the company made the same disclosure last quarter. The firm said the drop is a buying opportunity. 

“We continue to assume that PLAY’s lenders will again grant covenant relief, especially given visibility into recovering EBITDA at that time as the company emerges from COVID crisis,” the note said. — Jesse Pound, Michael Bloom 

Shares of Herman Miller are popping more than 35% on Thursday after reporting a huge earnings beat thanks to home office sales. As the coronavirus pandemic forces millions of American to work from their homes, the company said customers are upgrading their homes with work and office furniture. The home office category increased nearly 300% since last year, the company said in its earnings release. 

“This has represented a real opportunity for us and one we’re excited about because the distribution of the workforce has been happening for a very long time prior to COVID,” Herman Miller CEO and President Andrea Owen said on the earnings call. “We are here to help people sort of revamp the spaces they do have that are office-oriented as well as support the workers that are working from home and now schooling from home. 

Herman Miller reported fiscal first quarter earnings per share of $1.24, blowing past the earnings of 26 cents per share expected by Wall Street, according to Refinitiv. 

“They reported a completely blowout quarter last night. Why? Because people are rebuilding their homes,” CNBC’s Jim Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Oil reversed early losses and turned positive as OPEC and its oil-producing allies, known as OPEC+, urged ongoing compliance with production cuts during a meeting on Thursday.

“The JMMC [Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee] reiterated the critical importance of adhering to full conformity and compensating overproduced volumes as soon as possible,” a statement from OPEC said.

West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, advanced 91 cents, or 2.27%, to $41.07, while international benchmark Brent crude gained $1.19 to trade at $43.41. – Pippa Stevens

Shares of telehealth company American Well jumped nearly 40% after their market debut on Thursday. The IPO gives investors another way to invest in an industry that saw a surge in demand due to the pandemic, but it could hurt other stocks in the space, SVB Leerink’s Stephanie Davis said in a note. 

“The AMWL IPO is a positive signal for the virtual care universe, but could have a deflationary effect on telehealth valuations longer term. We attribute this dynamic to the scarcity premium enjoyed to date by the virtual care names, such as the top quartile valuations for TDOC and LVGO (OP),” the note said. — Jesse Pound

The gap between Snowflakes IPO price and its closing price on Wednesday resulted in $3.8 billion “left on the table.” That is the amount of additional money Snowflake could have raised if it sold all of the offered shares at the closing price. It’s the most for any IPO since Visa in 2008. 

“In many ways, $SNOW is the final proof of just how broken process is,” tweeted Bill Gurley, general partner at venture firm Benchmark and frequent critic of the traditional IPO process. The stock has dropped more than 11% on Thursday as investors continue to examine the newly public company. — Jesse Pound, Leslie Picker

The major averages were under pressure in midday trading as shares of the big tech companies dropped. The Dow slid 100 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 dipped 1% and the Nasdaq Composite pulled back by 1.6%. Conflicting messages on the coronavirus vaccine front and uncertainty around further fiscal stimulus also dragged the market. —Fred Imbert

The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed course and erased a 384-point drop from earlier in the session. The 30-stock average last traded up about 5 points. Stocks that hinge on the reopening of the economy and a Covid-19 vaccine rebounded on hopes of more coronavirus aid. —Maggie Fitzgerald 

Shares of major airlines erased earlier losses and eked out small gains after airline CEOs met with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, making a last-minute attempt to convince officials to approve more coronavirus aid as mass job cuts are set to hit the industry next month. American Airlines last traded 0.8% higher after losing more than 2% earlier. United Airlines also wiped out earlier losses and gained 1.6%. 

Executives that attended the meeting included American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly. “We had a very good meeting with the chief [of staff],” said Southwest’s Kelly after exiting the meeting. “The first CARES Act kept this country out of pandemic and I think the only mistake that was made is that it didn’t go far enough and long enough.” — Leslie Josephs, Yun Li

President Donald Trump is expected to make a verdict on TikTok’s future in the U.S. in the next 24 to 36 hours, sources told CNBC’s David Faber. Walmart is also expected to partner with Oracle in a deal where Oracle would own roughly 20% of the Chinese social media app, according to the sources. — Alex Sherman

Thursday’s sell-off briefly dragged the Nasdaq Composite back into correction territory, down more than 10% from its record high. Shares of megacap technology stocks fell with Amazon down more than 2%. Apple, Facebook and Alphabet all dropped more than 1% with Netflix down nearly 2%. Tesla ticked 3% lower. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Shares of software company Snowflake plunged more than 13% in early trading on Thursday as technology stocks came under pressure. Snowflake went public on Wednesday in the biggest software IPO in history. The stock surged 111% in its first day of trading. Snowflake was worth $70.4 billion at the end of trading, more than five times its $12.4 billion valuation in February. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Equities fell under pressure on Thursday as weakness in reopening and technology stocks weighed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 309 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite lost 1.6% and 2.2%, respectively. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

• Truist initiated Boston Scientific as buy.
• Oppenheimer named Domino’s Pizza a top idea.
• Piper Sandler initiated CVS as overweight.
• Stifel raised its price target on Penn National Gaming to $85 from $47.
• Susquehanna upgraded Lennar to positive from neutral.
• Needham upgraded Stitch Fix to buy from hold.
• Morgan Stanley raised its price target on AutoZone to $1,505 from $1,140.
• Jefferies raised its price target on Apple to $135 from $116.25.

Pro Subscribers can read more here. – Michael Bloom

Housing starts in August were roughly 1.42 million, down 0.9% month over month and 0.1% compared to 2019 after a string of beats for housing data. Economists were looking for 1.48 million, according to FactSet. Building permits also missed expectations.

Despite the miss on the headline numbers, single-family starts did rise in August, according to the Census Bureau. — Jesse Pound

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly jobless claims for the prior week totaled 860,000, which was better than the 875,000 economists polled by Dow Jones had been expecting. – Pippa Stevens 

President Donald Trump once again went on the attack against mail-in voting on Thursday. In a tweet the president said the results from the Nov. 3 election might “never be accurately determined.”

Trump has been speaking out against mail-in voting since the spring, saying that it will lead to voter fraud. According to investigations and studies, there’s no evidence of this occurring. – Pippa Stevens

Major tech stocks continued their struggles from Wednesday during premarket trading on Thursday. Shares of Apple, Microsoft and Facebook fell 1.8%, while Microsoft was down 2%. Even Snowflake cooled off on the heels of its blistering debut surge, falling 2.5%. — Jesse Pound

Wall Street is awaiting the latest U.S. weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET. Jobless claims are expected to total 875,000 in the week ending Sept.12, according to economists polled by Dow Jones. That would mark a slight decline from a total of 884,000 in the prior week. The economy is recovering from unprecedented damage caused by the coronavirus. At the onset of the crisis, nonfarm payrolls declined by some 22 million, about half of which have been recovered. — Yun Li

Shares of airlines fell in premarket trading on Thursday as investors grappled with different outlooks for a Covid-19 vaccine. President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that the U.S. could distribute a vaccine as early as October, while the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told lawmakers earlier in the day that vaccinations would be in limited quantities this year and not widely distributed for six to nine months. Shares of Delta Air Lines and American Airlines ticked 1% lower in premarket trading while United Airlines lost almost 2%. Southwest and Alaska Air Group also dipped slightly. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Futures tied to the major U.S. averages slid on Thursday, pointing to losses across the board at the open. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 220 points or 0.8%, indicating a more than 200 point drop. S&P 500 futures slid 1.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were down 1.6%. 

At 8:30 a.m. ET the latest jobless figures will be released, giving investors a read on the state of the economy. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve indicated that it will keep interest rates near zero through 2023 amid the ongoing recovery from Covid-19. 

The Dow finished Wednesday’s session with a slight gain, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite registered losses. – Pippa Stevens