Dow Rises 80 Points; MarketAxess Holdings Shares Slide

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 80 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.24% to 33,482.53 while the NASDAQ fell 1.21% to 11,979.98. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.34% to 4,086.64.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Utilities shares rose by 2.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cadiz Inc. CDZI, up 4%, and Via Renewables, Inc. VIA, up 4%.
• In trading on Wednesday, consumer discretionary fell by 1.9%.

Top Headline

The S&P Global services PMI was revised lower to 52.6 in March versus a preliminary reading of 53.8, and versus 50.6 in the prior month.

Equities Trading UP

• Nuburu, Inc. BURU shares shot up 62% to $4.3999 after the company announced it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense for a position on the multiple award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract for high energy laser beams.
• Shares of Liminal BioSciences Inc. LMNL got a boost, shooting 75% to $6.61 after Thomvest submitted an unsolicited non-binding transaction proposal to acquire Liminal on an all cash basis.
• InflaRx N.V. IFRX shares were also up, gaining 81% to $6.82 on continued upward momentum after the company yesterday announced it received FDA EUA for Gohibic for the treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients. Today, LifeSci Capital upgraded the stock from Market Perform to Outperform.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Western Alliance Bancorporation WAL shares dropped 11% to $30.01 after the company provided a quarter end financial update.
• Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. MKTX were down 13% to $340.21 after the company reported Q1 volume statistics.
• DLocal Limited DLO was down, falling 26% to $12.56 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 financial results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $80.67 while gold traded down 0.1% at $2,037.50.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $25.10 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.4% to $3.9875.

Stocks of crude oil in the US fell by 4.3 million barrels in the week ended March 31, 2023, the API said Tuesday. U.S. crude-oil inventories dropped 3.7 million barrels last week, the EIA said.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.16%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.37% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.78%. The German DAX fell 0.53%, French CAC 40 fell 0.39% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.59%.

The S&P Global Eurozone composite PMI rose to 53.7 in March from February's final reading of 52.0, while services PMI was revised lower to 55 for March versus a preliminary reading of 55.6.

French services PMI was revised lower to 53.9 in March versus a preliminary estimate of 55.5, while German services PMI was revised lower to 53.7 from a preliminary level of 53.9. Retail sales in Italy declined by 0.1% from a month ago in February. The S&P Global/CIPS UK services PMI slipped to 52.9 in March versus February's final level of 53.5.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.68% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex jumping 1.2%.

The S&P Global India services PMI fell to 57.8 in March versus February’s 12-year high level of 59.4, while Japanese services PMI was revised higher to 55.0 versus a preliminary level of 54.2. The Judo Bank Australian services PMI fell to 48.6 in March from 50.7 in February.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the U.S. dropped 4.1% in the week ending March 31, 2023.
• Private businesses in the U.S. added 145,000 jobs in March versus a revised 261,000 in February and compared to expectations of 200,000.
• Imports to the U.S. dropped by $5.0 billion from a month ago to $321.7 billion in February, while exports fell by $6.9 billion to $251.2 billion. The trade deficit in the U.S. rose to $70.5 billion in February.
• The S&P Global services PMI was revised lower to 52.6 in March versus a preliminary reading of 53.8, and versus 50.6 in the prior month.
• U.S. crude-oil inventories dropped 3.7 million barrels last week, the EIA said.

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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 106,273,690 cases with around 1,155,660 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,733,710 cases and 530,910 deaths, while France reported over 39,807,730 COVID-19 cases with 165,730 deaths. In total, there were at least 684,289,330 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,833,790 deaths.