Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises Over 400 Points; Owens & Minor Shares Surge On Upbeat Q4 Results

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.39% to 31,976.26 while the NASDAQ rose 0.83% to 13,576.46. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.15% to 3,925.88.

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 3.8% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SM Energy Company SM, up 16%, and Ring Energy, Inc. REI, up 25%.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell by 0.7%.

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 154% to $9.55 after the company stock was uplisted to the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Shares of Sypris Solutions, Inc. SYPR got a boost, shooting 90% to $5.06 after the company announced it has won a defense contract award for electronic modules for precision-guided anti-ship missile system.

Owens & Minor, Inc. OMI shares were also up, gaining 36% to $34.52 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4results and issued strong FY21 earnings forecast.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CNST shares tumbled 17% to $30.02 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 earnings.

Shares of Overstock.com, Inc. OSTK were down 15% to $75.06 following downbeat quarterly earnings.

Systemax Inc. SYX was down, falling 15% to $37.73 after the company reported downbeat Q4 earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $63.11, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,798.70.

Silver traded up 0.6% Wednesday to $27.845 while copper rose 3.2% to $4.3135.

Euro zone

European shares closed 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