Mid-Day Market Update: US Stocks Turn Higher; Systemax Shares Fall Following Q4 Earnings

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.90% to 31,820.21 while the NASDAQ rose 0.54% to 13,537.51. The S&P also rose, gainng 0.70% to 3,908.73.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 28,261,610 cases with around 502,680 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,030,170 confirmed cases and 156,560 deaths, while Brazil reported over 10,257,870 COVID-19 cases with 248,520 deaths. In total, there were at least 112,184,230 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,487,150 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 3.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. KLXE, up 13%, and Ring Energy, Inc. REI, up 20%.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Lowe's reported quarterly earnings of $1.33 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.19 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $20.30 billion, versus expectations of $19.24 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

Novo Integrated Sciences, Inc. NVOS shares shot up 139% to $8.98 after the company stock was uplisted to the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Shares of Sypris Solutions, Inc. SYPR got a boost, shooting 94% to $5.16 after the company announced it has won a defense contract award for electronic modules for precision-guided anti-ship missile system.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNSS shares were also up, gaining 26% to $5.41. Sunesis Pharmaceuticals shares gained 20% on Tuesday after Oppenheimer upgraded the stock from Perform to Outperform and announced a price target of $12 per share. The company earlier announced vote approving reverse stock split within range between 3-for-1 and 6-for-1.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CNST shares tumbled 15% to $30.75 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 earnings.

Shares of Entercom Communications Corp. ETM were down 14% to $5.35 following downbeat quarterly earnings.

Systemax Inc. SYX was down, falling 16% to $37.45 after the company reported downbeat Q4 earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $62.95, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,799.20.

Silver traded up 0.6% Wednesday to $27.86 while copper rose 1.2% to $4.2280.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.46%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.21% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.8%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.31%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.69%.

French manufacturing climate indicator climbed to 97 in February from a revised reading of 96 in January, while German economy grew 0.3% on quarter during the final three months of 2020.

Economics

US new home sales increased 4.3% to an annual rate of 923,000 in January.

US crude-oil inventories rose 1.3 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration reported.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here