Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower Ahead Of Fed Minutes

US stocks opened on a downbeat note this morning following the release of several economic reports.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.57% to 34,789.78 while the NASDAQ fell 1.32% to 13,953.73. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.76% to 4,437.27.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included FLEX LNG Ltd. FLNG, up 8% and Crescent Energy Company CRGY up 10%.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares tumbled by 1.5%.

Top Headline

The Kraft Heinz Company KHC reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Kraft Heinz reported quarterly earnings of $0.79 per share, exceeding market estimates of $0.63 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $6.71 billion, versus estimates of $6.61 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Upstart Holdings, Inc.. UPST shares shot up 32% to $143.82 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued sales guidance above estimates. The company also announced a $400 million buyback.

Shares of MYT Netherlands Parent B.V. MYTE got a boost, shooting 18% to $16.75. The company’s Q2 sales jumped 18.3% year-over-year to €187.6 million.

Cellebrite DI Ltd. CLBT shares were also up, gaining 10% to $7.72 after the company posted upbeat Q4 results and issued strong sales forecast

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Equities Trading DOWN

Masimo Corporation MASI shares tumbled 32% to $155.04 after the company reported Q4 earnings results and announced an agreement to acquire Sound United.

Shares of Roblox Corporation RBLX were down 24% to $55.42 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS results.

Wix.com Ltd. WIX was down, falling 23% to $88.95 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $93.07, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,856.80.

Silver traded up 0.7% Wednesday to $23.50 while copper rose 0.7% to $4.5640.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.2%. The German DAX dropped 0.5%, French CAC 40 fell 0.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.4%.

Annual inflation rate in the UK rose to 5.5% in January from 5.4% in December, while headline rate of output prices in the country accelerated to 9.9% year-over-year in January.

Economics

US retail sales increased 3.8% from a month ago in January versus a revised 2.5% decline in December. Analysts, however, were expecting for a 2% growth in retail sales.

The price index for US imports increased 2% from a month ago in January, while prices for US exports rose 2.9% in January.

US industrial production rose 1.4% for January.

US business inventories rose 2.1% for December.

The housing market index fell to 82.00 in February from prior reading of 83.00.

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

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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

The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 79,639,930 cases with around 949,260 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,723,550 cases and 509,900 deaths, while Brazil reported over 27,664,950 COVID-19 cases with 639,820 deaths. In total, there were at least 416,438,640 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,858,920 deaths.