Dow Jumps 300 Points; Crude Oil Rises Sharply

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 300 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 1.05% to 29,440.43 while the NASDAQ rose 1.28% to 10,968.28. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.16% to 3,689.45.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 2.7% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

US crude oil inventories dropped by 0.215 million barrels in the week ended September 23rd, versus market estimates of a 0.443-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.

Equities Trading UP

• PepGen Inc. PEPG shares shot up 71% to $8.91 after the company announced results from its Phase 1 healthy volunteer trial of PGN-EDO51 for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The trial met its primary endpoint.
• Shares of bioAffinity Technologies, Inc. BIAF got a boost, shooting 46% to $3.0999 after the company announced it received an additional $7.7 million from the exercise of warrants.
• Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ABOS shares were also up, gaining 92% to $9.02 after Biogen and Eisai announced their Phase 3 Clarity study of lecanemab met its primary endpoint.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. MNMD shares tumbled 49% to $3.12 after the company priced a 7.05 million share offering of common shares and warrants at $4.25 per share plus warrants.
• Shares of Nano Labs Ltd NA were down 38% to $1.9650 after the company priced a roughly 2.08 million ADS public offering at $2.40 per ADS.
• PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PHAS was down, falling 64% to $0.2754 after the company announced it received a notice that its partner SFJ Pharmaceuticals Group elected to transfer bentracimab rights to SFJ as PhaseBio failed to remedy its Going Concern Condition.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.4% to $81.13, while gold traded up 1.7% at $1,663.70.

Silver traded up 1.9% to $18.69 on Wednesday while copper rose 2.1% to $3.3510.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.05%. The German DAX gained 0.36%, French CAC 40 rose 0.19% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.52%.

Italian consumer confidence declined by 3.5 points from the previous month to 94.8 in September, while manufacturing confidence slipped to 101.3 in September a revised 104 in the earlier month. Consumer confidence in France fell to 79 in September from 82 a month ago. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator in Germany dropped to -42.5 heading into October versus a revised -36.8 a month ago.

Economics

• The trade gap on goods in the US shrank for a fifth straight month to $87.3 billion in August, the lowest since October last year. Imports declined 1.7%, while exports fell 0.9% last month.
• Wholesale inventories in the US increased by 1.3% month-over-month to $913.1 billion in August following a 0.6% rise in the previous month.
• Pending home sales in the US dropped 2% month-over-month in August versus market expectations for a 1.4% decline.
• US crude oil inventories dropped by 0.215 million barrels in the week ended September 23rd, versus market estimates of a 0.443-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.
• The Treasury is set to auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans is set to speak 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 97,991,490 cases with around 1,082,280 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,579,080 cases and 528,580 deaths, while France reported over 35,238,170 COVID-19 cases with 155,000 deaths. In total, there were at least 621,365,450 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,543,260 deaths.