U.S. Stocks Open Lower; Nasdaq Down 150 Points

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Nasdaq composite dropping more than 150 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.52% to 33,973.33 while the NASDAQ fell 1.18% to 12,947.89. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.73% to 4,273.58.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 0.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Euronav NV EURN, up 6% and SFL Corporation Ltd. SFL up 5%.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell by 1.3%.

Top Headline

U.S. retail sales unexpectedly stalled in July, versus market expectations for a 0.1% increase.

Equities Trading UP

Blue Water Vaccines, Inc. BWV shares shot up 54% to $3.93 after the company announced it plans to explore the potential development of a novel monkeypox vaccine using its norovirus shell and protrusion virus-like particle platform.

Shares of Cassava Sciences, Inc. SAVA got a boost, shooting 45% to $29.28 after a form 4 filing showed Director Sanford Robertson purchased 100,000 shares at an average price of $20.69.

JE Cleantech Holdings Limited JCSE shares were also up, gaining 34% to $3.0350.

Equities Trading DOWN

Artelo Biosciences, Inc. ARTL shares tumbled 23% to $4.88. Artelo Biosciences shares jumped 46% on Tuesday after the company announced the publication of pre-clinical results of its FABP inhibitor platform.

Shares of Blueprint Medicines Corporation BPMC were down 22% to $53.60 after the company announced top-line results from the registrational Part 2 of the PIONEER clinical trial of AYVAKIT in patients with non-advanced systemic mastocytosis.

Embark Technology, Inc. EMBK was down, falling 22% to $12.97. Embark Technology reported the completion of reverse stock split.

Also check out: Investor Optimism Rises Following Strong Retail Earnings

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.7% to $88.03, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,783.00.

Silver traded down 1.3% to $19.815 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.8% to $3.5955.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.9%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.8%. The German DAX dipped 1.7%, French CAC 40 fell 0.9% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.9%.

The annual inflation rate in the UK accelerated to 10.1% in July from 9.4% in the earlier period, while core producer prices in the UK rose by 14.6% year-over-year in July following a revised 14.9% increase in the previous month.

The Eurozone economy expanded 0.6% on quarter in the second quarter, down from a preliminary reading of 0.7% growth, and compared to a 0.5% rise in first quarter. The number of employed persons in the Eurozone increased by 0.3% on the quarter during the three months to June.

Economics

U.S. retail sales unexpectedly stalled in July, versus market expectations for a 0.1% increase.

U.S. business inventories increased 1.4% from a month ago in June.

U.S. crude-oil inventories dropped 7.1 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

The Treasury will 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.

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman will speak at 2:20 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 94,869,930 cases with around 1,063,080 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,286,250 cases and 527,130 deaths, while France reported over 34,240,330 COVID-19 cases with 153,240 deaths. In total, there were at least 597,284,190 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,460,130 deaths.