Dow Jumps Over 300 Points; Crude Oil Rises Sharply

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 300 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 1.02% to 32,160.81 while the NASDAQ fell 0.18% to 11,179.07. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.52% to 3,879.26.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 2% on Wednesday. Leading the sector was strength from Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR and Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. HLX.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares dipped by 2.3%.

Top Headline

Microsoft Corporation MSFT posted better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

Revenue for the Microsoft Cloud segment was $25.7 billion in the first quarter, up 24%% year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

• Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR shares shot up 22% to $168.12 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 sales results.
• Shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. EDU got a boost, shooting 20% to $25.37 higher after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results.
• ESSA Pharma Inc. EPIX shares were also up, gaining 91% to $3.28 after the company highlighted updates results from the Phase 1/2 study of EPI-7386 with Enzalutamide At the 29th Annual Prostate Cancer Foundation Scientific Retreat.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Stride, Inc. LRN shares tumbled 26% to $34.31 following weak quarterly earnings.
• Shares of FedNat Holding Company FNHC were down 44% to $0.3430 after the company announced a voluntary Nasdaq delisting.
• ThermoGenesis Holdings, Inc. THMO was down, falling 47% to $0.1196 after the company priced a public offering of 11,783,572 shares at $0.14 per share

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.8% to $87.73, while gold traded up 0.9% at $1,672.30

Silver traded up 0.9% to $19.53 on Wednesday while copper rose 3.5% to $3.5160.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.51%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.36% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.78%. The German DAX gained 0.98%, French CAC 40 rose 0.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.35%.

Loans to households in the Eurozone increased 4.4% year-over-year in September, while consumer confidence in France rose to 82 in October from 79 in September.

Economics

• The trade gap on goods increased to a three-month high of $92.2 billion in September from a $87.3 billion deficit in the previous month.
• Wholesale inventories in the US increased by 0.8% month-over-month to $921.7 billion in September.
• Building permits rose 1.4% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.564 million in September.
• US new home sales fell to a 603,000 annual rate in September compared to a revised 677,000 a month ago.
• US crude oil inventories climbed by 2.558 million barrels in the week ended October 21st, versus market estimates of a 1.029-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.
• The Treasury is set to auction 5-year notes at 1:00 a.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 99,141,250 cases with around 1,093,330 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,645,760 cases and 528,980 deaths, while France reported over 36,666,380 COVID-19 cases with 156,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 633,889,150 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,586,230 deaths.