Nasdaq Down 1%; US Crude Oil Inventories Decline Last Week

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping over 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.72% to 32,816.38 while the NASDAQ fell 1.12% to 12,419.97. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.90% to 4,108.09.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose by 0.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Granite Ridge Resources, Inc. GRNT, up 8%, and Verde Clean Fuels, Inc. VGAS, up 10%.
• In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 12.456 million barrels in the week ending May 19, 2023, versus market estimates of a 0.775 million gain, the EIA said.

Equities Trading UP

• GigaCloud Technology Inc. GCT shares shot up 37% to $7.86 after the company reported a year-over-year increase in first-quarter financial results.
• Shares of Enveric Biosciences, Inc. ENVB got a boost, shooting 103% to $6.38 after the company announced it received a Notice of Allowance from the USPTO for a patent application involving its EVM201 Series.
• Minerva Surgical, Inc. UTRS shares were also up, gaining 175% to $0.50 after the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the company a patent for certain medical systems and methods.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Ocugen, Inc. OCGN shares dropped 37% to $0.4560 after the company announced the pricing of its $16.5 million public offering of 30 million shares of common stock.
• Shares of QualTek Services Inc. QTEK were down 40% to $0.1050 after the company filed voluntarily petitions for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• BIOLASE, Inc. BIOL was down, falling 41% to $0.0825 after the company announced the pricing of a $4.5 million underwritten public offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $74.55 while gold traded down 0.2% at $1,971.00.

Silver traded down 0.8% to $23.44 on Wednesday while copper fell 2.6% to $3.5580.

Stocks of crude oil in the US dropped by 6.799 million barrels in the week ended May 19, recording the biggest drop in six months, the API said Tuesday.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.84 %, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.8% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.13% The German DAX declined 1.98%, French CAC 40 fell 1.73% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 2.33%.

The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany fell by 1.7 points from a month ago to 91.7 in May. The consumer price inflation in the UK eased to 8.7% year-over-year in April 2023, recording the lowest level since March 2022, while factory gate prices of goods produced by UK manufacturers fell to 5.4% year-over-year in April versus a revised 8.5% level in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.89%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.62% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropping 1.28%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.2%.

The Reuters Tankan sentiment index for manufacturers in Japan rose to a reading of +6 in May compared to -3 in the prior month. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Economic Index in Australia came in flat versus the earlier month for April.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the U.S. dropped 4.6% in the week ended May 19 2023, versus a 5.7% decline in the prior week, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
• U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 12.456 million barrels in the week ending May 19, 2023, versus market estimates of a 0.775 million gain, 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 107,056,690 cases with around 1,164,560 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,987,330 cases and 531,840 deaths, while France reported over 40,061,440 COVID-19 cases with 167,200 deaths. In total, there were at least 689,124,030 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,881,400 deaths.