Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Citigroup Earnings Beat Expectations

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.26% to 34,979.05 while the NASDAQ rose 0.40% to 14,736.66. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.30% to 4,382.38.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,914,920 cases with around 607,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 30,946,140 cases and 411,400 deaths, while Brazil reported over 19,151,990 COVID-19 cases with 535,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 187,837,100 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,049,850 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose by 0.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SGOCO Group, Ltd. SGOC, up 68%, and Verb Technology Company, Inc. VERB, up 16%.

In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

Citigroup Inc. C reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Tuesday.

Citigroup reported quarterly earnings of $2.85 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.96 per share. The company’s revenue came in at $17.50 billion, versus expectations of $17.20 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

SGOCO Group, Ltd. SGOC shares shot up 93% to $18.54. SGOCO Group regained compliance with Nasdaq's listing standards on July 12 by filing its FY20 20-F.

Shares of Datasea Inc. DTSS got a boost, shooting 69% to $4.93. Datasea’s subsidiary Shuhai Zhangxun Information Technology Co., Ltd inked six purchase and distribution agreements to provide 5G Message-marketing Cloud Platform (5G MMCP) Version 3.0 and further enhanced product availability nationwide in China by adding new district partners..

Wilhelmina International, Inc.. WHLM shares were also up, gaining 39% to $6.89.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Allied Healthcare Products, Inc. AHPI shares tumbled 32% to $6.12 after jumping around 130% on Tuesday.

Shares of Unicycive Therapeutics, Inc. UNCY were down 29% to $4.15. Unicycive Therapeutics surged 17% on Tuesday as the company priced its IPO at $5 a share.

Glaukos Corporation GKOS was down, falling 22% to $57.33 after William Blair downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its fiscal 2022 proposed physician fee schedule, which included two combined Category I cataract plus stent procedure codes.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $74.95, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,820.40.

Silver traded up 0.7% Wednesday to $26.32 while copper fell 0.5% to $4.2855.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.6% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.1%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4%, French CAC 40 declined 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.1%.

Industrial production in the Eurozone dropped 1% in May, recording the first decline in three months. Spain's consumer prices increased 2.7% annually in June. UK’s producer prices rose 4.3% year-over-year in June, while annual inflation rate in the UK rose to 2.5% in June from 2.1% in May.

Economics

Producer prices for final demand rose 1% in June.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the US will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will testify before Congress.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari will speak at 1:30 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will release its Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here