Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Rise; Bank of America Posts Upbeat Profit

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.12% to 35,411.14 while the NASDAQ rose 0.90% to 14,638.13. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.44% to 4,597.47.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 68,767,000 cases with around 877,240 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 37,901,240 cases and 487,220 deaths, while Brazil reported over 23,215,550 COVID-19 cases with 621,570 deaths. In total, there were at least 335,521,830 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,574,720 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares gained 1.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included The Glimpse Group, Inc. VRAR, up 5% and Opera Limited OPRA up 8%.

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

Top Headline

Bank of America Corporation BAC reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Bank of America posted quarterly earnings of $0.82 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.76 per share. The company’s quarterly revenue came in at $22.06 billion, versus expectations of $22.18 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

Zogenix, Inc. ZGNX shares shot up 67% to $26.12 after the company announced it will be acquired by UCB for approximately $1.9 billion.

Shares of Splash Beverage Group, Inc. SBEV got a boost, shooting 29% to $4.19 after the company announced it has received authorization to sell its Pulpoloco Sangria line in 187 of Ralph's Grocery stores.

Gamida Cell Ltd. GMDA shares were also up, gaining 17% to $2.5997. Gamida Cell announced that following receipt of positive Type B meeting correspondence from the FDA. The company said it plans to initiate a rolling biologics license application submission for omidubicel, a potentially life-saving treatment for patients with blood cancers in need of stem cell transplant.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Cardiff Oncology, Inc. CRDF shares tumbled 20% to $4.89 after the company posted new data from Phase 1b/2 trial of onvansertib combined with standard-of-care (SOC) FOLFIRI/bevacizumab for second-line KRAS-mutated metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Shares of Yumanity Therapeutics, Inc. YMTX were down 19% to $1.98 after the company reported partial clinical hold by the US FDA on multidose clinical trials for YTX-7739.

Orion Energy Systems, Inc. OESX was down, falling 18% to $3.28 after the company lowered its FY22 sales forecast.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $86.48, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,817.00.

Silver traded up 1.3% Wednesday to $23.785 while copper rose 1.1% to $4.4315.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.4%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%. The German DAX climbed 0.6%, French CAC 40 rose 0.9% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.1%.

The Eurozone current account surplus shrank to EUR 26.0 billion in November from EUR 27.5 billion in the year-ago month. Germany’s annual inflation rate was confirmed at 5.3% in December, notching the highest level since June 1992.

Annual inflation rate in the UK climbed to 5.4% in December from 5.1% in the previous month, while headline rate of output prices fell to 9.3% year-over-year in December.

Economics

Housing starts rose 1.4% to an annualized rate of 1.702 million in December, while building permits jumped 9.1% to an annual rate of 1.873 million.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index jumped 15.2% year-over-year for the week ended January 15.

The Treasury is set to auction 20-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here