U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index falling more than 700 points on Friday.

The Dow traded down 1.63% to 43,457.49 while the NASDAQ fell 1.63% to 19,637.11. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.38% to 6,033.27.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares jumped by 0.6% on Friday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 2.7%.

Top Headline

The S&P Global services PMI dipped to 49.7 in February versus 52.9 in the prior month, down from estimates of 53.

Equities Trading UP

Nuburu, Inc. ( BURU ) shares shot up 64% to $0.3286 after the company announced a new strategic acquisition agreement.

Shares of Universe Pharmaceuticals INC ( UPC ) got a boost, surging 49% to $0.2118.

GDEV Inc. ( GDEV ) shares were also up, gaining 43% to $20.23 after the company announced a one-time special cash dividend of $3.31 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aspire Biopharma Holdings, Inc. shares dropped 55% to $2.8000. Aspire Biopharma entered into $3 million senior secured convertible debenture agreement.

Shares of Mobile-health Network Solutions ( MNDR ) were down 48% to $0.4850.

bluebird bio, Inc. was down, falling 42% to $4.09. The company announced it agreed to be acquired by Carlyle and SK Capital for a potential total value of up to $9.84 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.7% to $70.56 while gold traded up 0.1% at $2,957.20.

Silver traded down 1% to $33.140 on Friday, while copper fell 1.4% to $4.5475.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.52%, Germany's DAX 40 fell 0.12% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.39%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.12%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.04%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.26%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.85%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 3.99% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.56%.

Economics

The U.S. University of Michigan consumer sentiment fell to 64.7 in February compared to a preliminary reading of 67.8.

The year-ahead inflation expectations surged to an over one-year high of 4.3% during February.

U.S. existing home sales fell by 4.9% to an annualized rate of 4.08 million in January, recording the sharpest drop in seven months.

The S&P Global services PMI dipped to 49.7 in February versus 52.9 in the prior month, down from estimates of 53.

The S&P Global manufacturing PMI climbed to 51.6 in February versus 51.2 in the previous month.

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