Dow Dips 300 Points; Snap Shares Plunge

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones dropping over 300 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.91% to 33,774.70 while the NASDAQ fell 0.33% to 11,546.13. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.41% to 4,059.70.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Health care shares slipped by just 0.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Mesoblast Limited MESO, up 11%, and Tyra Biosciences, Inc. TYRA, up 29%.
• In trading on Wednesday, energy shares dipped by 1.4%.

Top Headline

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. TMO posted upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter.

Thermo Fisher Scientific reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $5.40 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $5.19 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $11.45 billion, exceeding market expectations of $10.43 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Motorsport Games Inc. MSGM shares shot up 73% to $37.00. Motorsport Games agreed to raise $3.9 million at par via private placement of shares for developing multiple games, working capital and general corporate purposes.
• Shares of Bright Green Corporation BGXX got a boost, shooting 100% to $1.05. Bright Green announced plans to raise $500 million under EB-5 Capital Program.
• Versus Systems Inc. VS shares were also up, gaining 330% to $2.62 after the company announced it will partner with Resolve to bring generative AI and gamification to customer payments and credit management.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Taysha Gene Therapies, Inc. TSHA shares tumbled 33% to $1.0950 after the company issued an update on TSHA-120 program in giant axonal neuropathy and a 2023 corporate outlook.
• Shares of Varex Imaging Corporation VREX were down 17% to $17.87 after the company issued Q2 EPS guidance below analyst estimates.
• Snap Inc. SNAP was down, falling 14% to $9.96 after the company posted a net loss for the fourth quarter and said revenue could drop by as much as 10% for the current quarter.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $78.34 while gold traded up 0.1% at $1,947.30.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $23.735 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.8% to $4.1495.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.21%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.31% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.51%. The German DAX gained 0.1% French CAC 40 fell 0.28% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.16%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone dropped to an eight-month low of 8.5% in January, while annual consumer price inflation in Italy declined to 10.4% in January from 11.6% in the prior month. The S&P Global Eurozone manufacturing PMI rose to 48.8 in January from 47.8 in the prior month.

The S&P Global/CIPS manufacturing PMI for UK was revised higher to 47.0 in versus a preliminary reading of 46.7, while French manufacturing PMI was revised lower to 50.5 in January versus a preliminary level of 50.8. Germany’s manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 47.3 in January from a preliminary reading of 47.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.07%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.05% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.90%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.3%.

Hong Kong's economy contracted by 4.2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. The S&P Global Indian manufacturing PMI declined to a three-month low of 55.4 in January. The Caixin China general manufacturing PMI rose to 49.2 in January, while Japanese manufacturing PMI stood at 48.9 in January.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US dropped 9% in the week ended January 27.
• The S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 46.9 in January from a preliminary reading of 46.8.
• Private businesses in the US added 106,000 jobs in January.
• Stocks of crude oil in the US increased by 4.14 million barrels in the week ended January 27, versus market expectations of a 0.376-million-barrel rise, the US Energy Information Administration reported.

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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 104,196,860 cases with around 1,132,930 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,682,780 cases and 530,740 deaths, while France reported over 39,524,310 COVID-19 cases with 164,230 deaths. In total, there were at least 675,217,930 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,762,450 deaths.