Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; United Natural Foods Beats Q1 Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.10% to 35,754.05 while the NASDAQ fell 0.09% to 15,672.72. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.06% to 4,689.49.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 50,270,130 cases with around 812,200 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,656,820 cases and 473,950 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,157,720 COVID-19 cases with 616,060 deaths. In total, there were at least 267,527,370 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,289,820 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares climbed 0.3% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Roku, Inc. ROKU, up 9% and WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. WIMI up 7%.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

United Natural Foods reported a quarterly profit of $0.97 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.56 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $7.00 billion, versus expectations of $6.80 billion.

United Natural Foods reaffirmed FY22 guidance, expecting adjusted EPS of $3.90 to $4.20.

 

Equities Trading UP

Insignia Systems, Inc. ISIG shares shot up 85% to $18.75.
Insignia Systems recently announced the commencement of a formal process to explore strategic options to maximize shareholder value, including potential merger or acquisition.

Shares of Photronics, Inc. PLAB got a boost, shooting 16% to $16.45 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results. The company also issued Q1 EPS and sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Wejo Group Limited WEJO shares were also up, gaining 14% to $6.65 after Baird initiated coverage on the stock with an Outperform rating and announced a $12 price target.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Nuvei Corporation NVEI shares tumbled 48% to $50.96 following a short report on the company by Spruce Point Capital Management.

Shares of Radius Health, Inc. RDUS were down 41% to $8.51 after the company posted topline data from Phase 3 wearABLe study evaluating the non-inferiority (NI) of abaloparatide transdermal system (abalo-TDS) compared to abaloparatide subcutaneous injection (Tymlos) in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

Ensysce Biosciences, Inc. ENSC was down, falling 33% to $2.15. Ensysce Biosciences shares jumped 136% on Tuesday after Zacks Small-Cap Research set a $23 valuation on the stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $72.54, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,790.30.

Silver traded down 0.3% Wednesday to $22.455 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.3375.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.5% and the German DAX 30 slipped 0.3%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3%, French CAC 40 fell 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.4%.

Payroll employment in the French private sector rose 0.5% to 19.93 million in the third quarter.

Economics

The number of job openings rose by 431,000 from a month ago to 11.033 million in October, the Labor Department said.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here