Crude Oil Moves Higher; Travelers Earnings Beat Estimates

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index falling over 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.55% to 40,145.06 while the NASDAQ dipped 2.08% to 16,473.81. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.22% to 5,330.57.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares surged by 1.9% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell by 2.8%.

Top Headline

Travelers Companies, Inc. TRV posted better-than-expected first-quarter results on Wednesday.

The company posted quarterly sales of $11.81 billion (+5% year over year) outpacing the analyst consensus estimate of $10.81 billion. The company reported first-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.91, beating the street view of $0.80.

The company declared a regular quarterly dividend increase of 5% to $1.10 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Treasure Global Inc. TGL shares shot up 67% to $3.2150 after the company announced that it has secured an exclusive partnership with Mezzofy to become the sole distributor of its digital coupon platform and is targeting $2-4 million in annual recurring revenue.
Shares of Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. HTZgot a boost, surging 15% to $4.2106 after Pershing Square Capital Management disclosed via a 13F that it bought 12.7 million shares in the company.
iCAD, Inc. ICAD shares were also up, gaining 67% to $3.2150 after the company announced it will be acquired by RadNet for a deal worth approximately $103 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

SUNation Energy Inc. SUNE shares dropped 48% to $0.0211 as the company announced a 1-for-200 reverse stock split.
Shares of Ostin Technology Group Co., Ltd. OST were down 38% to $1.98. Ostin Technology Group announced the pricing of $5.0 million registered direct offering.
Biomerica, Inc. BMRA was down, falling 26% to $0.4243 after the company announced a 1-for-8 reverse stock split.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.7% to $62.39 while gold traded up 2.8% at $3,330.10.

Silver traded up 1.6% to $32.805 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.1% to $4.6315.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.83%, Germany's DAX 40 declined 0.51% and France's CAC 40 dipped 0.67%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index slipped 0.12%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.26%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 1.01%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.26%, Hong Kong's Gang Seng index dipping 1.91% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.4%.

Economics

U.S. industrial production declined by 0.3% in March compared to market estimates of a 0.2% fall.
U.S. retail sales rose 1.4% month-over-month in March versus a 0.2% gain in the previous month and better than estimates of 1.3%.
U.S. mortgage application volumes dipped by 8.5% from the previous week during the second week of April.
Crude oil inventories in the U.S. climbed by 0.515 million barrels in the week ended April 11, compared to market estimates of a 0.4 million gain.

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