Nasdaq Surges 100 Points; Crude Oil Falls Sharply

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite adding more than 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.81% to 31,397.40 while the NASDAQ rose 0.92% to 11,650.88. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.87% to 3,942.21.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares jumped by 2.4% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Azure Power Global Limited AZRE, up 29% and Sunnova Energy International Inc. NOVA up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell by 1.2%.

Top Headline

The trade deficit narrowed by $10.2 billion to a nine-month low level of $70.7 billion in July. Exports from the US rose by 0.2% from the prior month to $259.3 billion, while imports fell 2.9% to $329.9 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Quoin Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. QNRX shares shot up 30% to $4.3191 after Alliance Global Partners initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and a $20 price target.
• Shares of Sidus Space, Inc. SIDU got a boost, shooting 30% to $3.46 after the company announced that it has signed a launch agreement with SpaceX for five launches, beginning in early 2023.
• IMARA Inc. IMRA shares were also up, gaining 40% to $1.6081 after the company announced it entered into an asset purchase agreement with Cardurion Pharmaceuticals to sell tovinontrine and other assets of its PDE9 program for $34.75 million upfront.

Equities Trading DOWN

• CleanTech Acquisition Corp. CLAQ shares tumbled 35% to $6.15 after the company reported shareholder voting results in 8K filing.
• Shares of Great Panther Mining Limited GPL were down 62% to $0.32. Great Panther recently announced it will file a notice of intention to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada)
• UiPath Inc. PATH was down, falling 15% to $13.22 after the company issued Q3 and FY23 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.8% to $83.62, while gold traded up 0.6% at $1,722.60.

Silver traded up 1.5% to $18.175 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.4% to $3.4480.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.58%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.65%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.07%. The German DAX gained 0.2%, French CAC 40 fell 0.06% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.03%.

The Eurozone economy grew 0.8% on quarter during the second quarter, versus a 0.6% growth in the second estimate, while number of employed persons increased by 0.4% on the quarter to 164.1 million in the quarter.

Retail sales in Italy climbed 1.3% from a month ago in July following a 1.1% drop a month ago. Industrial production in Germany declined 0.3% month-over-month during July, while Halifax house price index in the UK increased 11.5% year-over-year in August.

Economics

• The trade deficit narrowed by $10.2 billion to a nine-month low level of $70.7 billion in July. Exports from the US rose by 0.2% from the prior month to $259.3 billion, while imports fell 2.9% to $329.9 billion.
• Michael S. Barr, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve for Supervision, will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.
• The Federal Reserve will release its latest Beige Book report 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 96,716,570 cases with around 1,073,290 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,472,240 cases and 528,050 deaths, while France reported over 34,623,090 COVID-19 cases with 154,330 deaths. In total, there were at least 611,547,510 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,507,600 deaths.