Mid-Afternoon Market Update: US Stocks Pare Losses; S&P 500 Turns Higher

US stocks pared losses toward the end of trading on Wednesday following the release of Fed minutes.

The Dow traded down 0.09% to 34,957.54 while the NASDAQ fell 0.17% to 14,115.37. The S&P, however, gained 0.15% to 4,477.98.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NextDecade Corporation NEXT, up 10% and FLEX LNG Ltd. FLNG up 10%.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares tumbled by 1.2%.

Top Headline

US crude-oil inventories gained 1.1 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Equities Trading UP

Upstart Holdings, Inc.. UPST shares shot up 35% to $146.79 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 HOOKIPA Pharma Inc. HOOK got a boost, shooting 58% to $2.1150. Hookipa Pharma amended and restated collaboration and license agreement with Gilead Sciences for arenaviral immunotherapy as a component of a potential functional curative regimen for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Generac Holdings Inc. GNRC shares were also up, gaining 15% to $317.88 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Masimo Corporation MASI shares tumbled 36% to $147.48 after the company reported Q4 earnings results and announced an agreement to acquire Sound United.

Shares of Roblox Corporation RBLX were down 25% to $54.96 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS results.

Wix.com Ltd. WIX was down, falling 29% to $82.04 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.7% to $94.55, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,867.20.

Silver traded up 0.7% Wednesday to $23.515 while copper rose 0.6% to $4.5565.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.04%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.07%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.22%. The German DAX dropped 0.28%, French CAC 40 fell 0.21% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.01%.

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.

US crude-oil inventories gained 1.1 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

The Federal Open Market Committee released minutes of its latest meeting.

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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.