US Stocks Edge Lower; Dollar Tree Profit Beats Views

U.S. stocks traded slightly lower this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping around 30 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.09% to 32,626.82 while the NASDAQ fell 0.25% to 11,426.42. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.26% to 3,960.00.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose 0.8% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Vertex Energy, Inc. VTNR, up 5%, and TORM plc TRMD, up 4%.
• In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell by 1.2%.

 

Top Headline

Dollar Tree, Inc. DLTR reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Dollar Tree posted quarterly earnings of $2.04 per share, beating market estimates of $2.02 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $7.72 billion, versus expectations of $7.60 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

• Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RETA shares shot up 173% to $85.24 after the company reported the FDA approval of SKYCLARYS for patients with Friedreich's Ataxia.
• Shares of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. RRGB got a boost, shooting 27% to $10.81 after the company reported Q4 results.
• OKYO Pharma Limited OKYO shares were also up, gaining 22% to $2.7150. US Customs cleared OKYO Pharma's GMP packaged OK-101 drug for Phase 2 clinical trial for treating dry eye disease.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Performance Shipping Inc. PSHG shares tumbled 58% to $1.12 after the company reported pricing of $12.5 million registered direct offering of 5.556 million shares of common stock at a price of $2.25 per share.
• Shares of Xometry, Inc. XMTR were down 34% to $20.07 after the company announced downbeat quarterly results.
• iHeartMedia, Inc. IHRT was down, falling 35% to $4.74 after the company posted Q4 results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $76.65 while gold traded up 0.5% at $1,845.50.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $21.085 on Wednesday while copper rose 1% to $4.1320.

Stocks of crude oil in the US rose by 6.203 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 24, 2023, the American Petroleum Institute said.

 

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.4%. The German DAX gained 0.2% French CAC 40 rose 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.2%.

The S&P Global Eurozone manufacturing PMI came in at 48.5 in February compared to 48.8 in January. The S&P Global/BME manufacturing PMI for Germany was revised lower to 46.3 in February versus a preliminary level of 46.5, while jobless rate in the country stood at 5.5% in February.

French manufacturing PMI was revised lower to 47.4 in February versus a preliminary reading of 47.9, while Spain manufacturing PMI increased to 50.7 in February from 48.4 in January. The Nationwide House Price Index in the UK dropped by 1.1% year-over-year in February.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.26%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumping 4.21% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.8%.

The S&P Global India manufacturing PMI fell to a four-month low level of 55.3 in February from 55.4 a month ago. The au Jibun Bank Japanese manufacturing PMI declined to 47.7 in February from 48.9 a month ago.

The official NBS non-manufacturing PMI for China rose to 56.3 in February, while manufacturing PMI rose to 52.6. The Australian economy expanded 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in Q4, while the country’s manufacturing PMI rose to 50.5 in February.

 

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US dropped 5.7% in the week ended Feb. 24, 2023.
• US manufacturing PMI rose to 47.3 for February from previous reading of 46.9. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 47.8.

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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 105,285,340 cases with around 1,145,660 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,686,610 cases and 530,770 deaths, while France reported over 39,622,230 COVID-19 cases with 164,960 deaths. In total, there were at least 679,997,650 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,800,330 deaths.