Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.42% to 34,437.23 while the NASDAQ fell 0.14% to 14,508.18. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.06% to 4,294.30.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,653,100 cases with around 604,470 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 30,362,840 cases and 398,450 deaths, while Brazil reported over 18,513,300 COVID-19 cases with 515,980 deaths. In total, there were at least 181,856,800 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,939,030 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares jumped by 0.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Vertex Energy, Inc. VTNR, up 24%, and Aspen Aerogels, Inc. ASPN, up 27%.
In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell 0.4%.
Top Headline
General Mills, Inc. GIS reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.
General Mills reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.91 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.84 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $4.50 billion, versus analysts’ expectations of $4.36 billion.
General Mills said it sees FY22 organic net sales down 1% to 3%.
Equities Trading UP
Cuentas Inc. CUEN shares shot up 188% to $8.00. The stock spiked following a press release saying "WaveMax to Implement the World's First Shared Wifi6 Network." Cuentas signed a contract to rollout SharedFi in 170 test locations in the New York City-Tristate area.
Shares of Aerovate Therapeutics Inc AVTE got a boost, shooting 82% to $25.51 after the company priced its IPO at $14 per share.
Dingdong (Cayman) Limited DDL shares were also up, gaining 77% to $42.00. Dingdong (Cayman) Limited priced its initial public offering of 4 million American depositary shares (ADS) at $23.5 per ADS. The total offering size is $95.7 million.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
Barnes & Noble Education Inc BNED shares tumbled 18% to $7.16 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results.
Shares of electroCore, Inc. ECOR were down 26% to $1.11 after the company priced an 18 million share common stock offering at $1 per share.
Altimmune, Inc. ALT was down, falling 36% to $10.16 after the company provided an update on the Phase 1 AdCOVID clinical trial evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of the intranasally administered vaccine candidate, showing lower than expected immune responses for each of the immune parameters tested. Moving forward, Altimmune will focus its resources on the development of ALT-801 and HepTcell, its novel peptide-based therapeutics for obesity and liver diseases, the company said.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3% to $73.19, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,765.00.
Silver traded up 0.8% Wednesday to $26.10 while copper rose 0.4% to $4.2820.
Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.75%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.05% and the German DAX 30 dropped 1%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.68%, French CAC 40 declined 0.91% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 1.07%.
Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone declined to 1.9% in June from a 2-1/2-year high level of 2% in the previous month. French industrial producer prices increased 0.5% in May, while annual inflation rate rose to 1.5% in June from 1.4% in May. German unemployment rate slipped to 3.7% in May from 3.8% in the prior month.
The UK’s gross domestic product contracted by 6.1% year-over-year in the first quarter. Business investment in the UK dipped 10.7% on quarter during the first three months of the year, while current account deficit shrank to GBP 12.8 billion in the first quarter.
Economics
Private businesses hired 692,000 workers in June, versus a revised 886,000 gain in May, the ADP said.
The MNI Chicago Business Barometer declined to 66.1 in June from 75.2 in May.
US pending home sales surged 13.1% year-over-year in May following a record 51.7% increase in April.
US crude oil inventories fell by 6.718 million barrels in the June 25th week, the Energy Information Administration said.
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Data on farm prices for May will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
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