Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; AT&T Earnings Top Expectations

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.14% to 34,689.16 while the NASDAQ rose 2.15% to 13,830.02. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.61% to 4,426.80.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 73,449,180 cases with around 894,880 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 40,085,110 cases and 491,150 deaths, while Brazil reported over 24,334,070 COVID-19 cases with 623,900 deaths. In total, there were at least 359,757,320 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,636,230 deaths.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained 2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camber Energy, Inc. CEI, up 18% and Tidewater Inc. TDW up 7%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer discretionary shares dipped by 2.8%.

Top Headline

AT&T Inc. T reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter, but issued weak earnings guidance for FY22.

AT&T reported adjusted earnings of $0.78 per share, ahead of the consensus of $0.76. Net sales came in at $40.96 billion, beating the consensus of $40.43 billion.

AT&T said it sees FY22 adjusted EPS of $3.10 to $3.15, versus analysts’ estimates of $3.21.

Equities Trading UP

Stride, Inc. LRN shares shot up 31% to $35.44 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results and issued Q3 guidance above estimates.

Shares of Clean Energy Fuels Corp. CLNE got a boost, shooting 18% to $6.51 amid the company's 'RNG Day' Investor Day presentation.

Bakkt Holdings, Inc. BKKT shares were also up, gaining 19% to $4.62.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Gatos Silver, Inc. GATO shares tumbled 66% to $3.45 after the company issued an update on mineral resources and reserves at Cerro Los Gatos and 2022 performance guidance. RBC Capital and CIBC downgraded the stock.

Shares of Cortexyme, Inc. CRTX were down 30% to $6.33. The FDA placed a clinical hold on Cortexyme’s atuzaginstat (COR388) Investigational New Drug application (IND 134303).

Mainz Biomed B.V. MYNZ was down, falling 25% to $15.15 after the company priced a 1.5 million share follow-on offering at $15 per share.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $85.94, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,844.90.

Silver traded up 0.1% Wednesday to $23.915 while copper rose 1.4% to $4.5110.

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Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 1.8%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 1.6%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 2.1%. The German DAX rose 2%, French CAC 40 gained 2.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.7%.

The consumer confidence index in France declined slightly by 1 point to a reading of 99 in January.

Economics

The US goods trade deficit widened to a record high of $101 billion in December from a revised $ 98 billion gap in the previous month.

Wholesale inventories rose 2.1% month-over-month to $789.4 billion in December.

New home sales climbed by 11.9% from a month ago to an annual rate of 811 thousand in December.

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

The Federal Reserve will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.