U.S. Stocks Turn Higher; Athira Pharma Shares Plummet

U.S. stocks turned higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 30 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.03% to 30,540.27 while the NASDAQ rose 0.28% to 11,100.72. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.13% to 3,769.59.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 1.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Wave Life Sciences Ltd. WVE, up 25% and Evelo Biosciences, Inc. EVLO up 21%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares tumbled by 3.3%.

Top Headline

Winnebago Industries, Inc. WGO reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Winnebago posted adjusted earnings of $4.13 per share, exceeding market estimates of $2.96 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.46 billion, versus expectations of $1.20 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. OBCI shares shot up 117% to $12.85 after the company announced it will be acquired by OneWater Marine for $13.08 per share in cash.

Shares of Revlon, Inc. REV got a boost, shooting 40% to $8.50 on continued volatility following the company's recent bankruptcy filing. The stock has also been circulated as a short squeeze candidate.

JX Luxventure Limited LLL shares were also up, gaining 21% to $1.7995. JX Luxventure announced a $5 million buyback and also signed a $30 million sales agreement.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Athira Pharma, Inc. ATHA shares tumbled 67% to $2.78 after the company reported that the primary endpoint of change in biomarker ERP P300 latency was not statistically significant from its exploratory ACT-AD Phase 2 study of fosgonimeton.

Shares of Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc. NEPT were down 34% to $1.92 after the company announced a $5 million registered direct offering.

ProFrac Holding Corp. PFHC was down, falling 14% to $18.54. ProFrac Holding announced plans to acquire U.S. Well Services for $1.21 per share in an all-stock deal.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 4.5% to $104.60, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,845.70.

Silver traded down 1.1% to $21.530 on Wednesday while copper fell 2.5% to $3.9380.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.52%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.67% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.68%. The German DAX dropped 0.8%, French CAC 40 fell 0.7% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.87%.

The annual inflation rate in the UK accelerated to 9.1% in May from 9% in the previous month, while producer prices surged 15.7% year-over-year in May.

 

Economics

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans will speak at 12:55 p.m. ET.

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

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker is set to speak at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin will speak at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Check out this: US Stock Futures Higher; Dow Futures Surge 500 Points

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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 88,244,870 cases with around 1,038,900 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,334,650 cases and 524,900 deaths, while Brazil reported over 31,824,220 COVID-19 cases with 669,430 deaths. In total, there were at least 545,869,900 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,343,910 deaths.