US Stocks Open Higher, Dow Jumps Over 200 Points

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining over 200 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.72% to 32,628.42 while the NASDAQ rose 1.33% to 11,872.30. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.03% to 4,012.27.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Real estate shares jumped by 2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Green Giant Inc. GGE, up 5%, and Newmark Group, Inc. NMRK, up 6%.
• In trading on Wednesday, health care shares rose by just 0.4%.

Top Headline

Micron Technology, Inc. MU reported weaker-than-expected Q2 results.

Micron reported second-quarter revenue of $3.69 billion, down from $7.79 billion year-over-year and below consensus estimates of $3.72 billion. The company reported a quarterly loss of $1.91 per share, which missed estimates for a loss of 81 cents per share.

Equities Trading UP

• Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. ARCT shares shot up 20% to $18.62 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.
• Shares of Erasca, Inc. ERAS got a boost, shooting 16% to $3.1900. Erasca Chairman & CEO Jonathan Lim acquired a total of 100,000 shares at an average price of $2.84.
• Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULU shares were also up, gaining 15% to $369.36 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued strong guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Sharecare, Inc. SHCR shares dropped 31% to $1.4601 after the company reported Q4 results.
• Shares of ProQR Therapeutics N.V. PRQR were down 32% to $2.43. ProQR Therapeutics posted a FY loss of €0.91 per share.
• bluebird bio, Inc. BLUE was down, falling 25% to $3.2350 after the company reported Q4 and full year 2022 financial results. Also, a Bloomberg report suggesting Bluebird Bio expects a delay on its FDA sickle cell drug application is also impacting the stock.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $74.05 while gold traded down 0.5% at $1,962.80.

Silver traded down 0.3% to $23.34 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.4% to $4.1035.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.2%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 1.3%. The German DAX gained 1.1%, French CAC 40 rose 1.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.3%.

Consumer credit in the UK rose by £1.413 billion in February versus a revised £1.686 billion increase in the previous month. The consumer confidence in France declined to 81 in March from 82 a month ago, while German GfK Consumer Climate Indicator rose for a sixth straight month to a reading of -29.5 heading into April.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.33%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 2.06% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.16%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.3%.

Singapore’s Domestic Supply Price Index fell 4.7% year-over-year in February versus a revised 1.5% drop in the prior month.

Economics

Mortgage applications in the US climbed 2.9% in the week ended March 24, 2023.

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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 106,120,650 cases with around 1,153,970 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,709,670 cases and 530,840 deaths, while France reported over 39,771,700 COVID-19 cases with 165,570 deaths. In total, there were at least 683,539,740 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,828,510 deaths.