Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.16% to 30,639.15 while the NASDAQ rose 0.26% to 13,647.84. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.15% to 3,832.19.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 26,436,590 cases with around 446,900 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,777,280 confirmed cases and 154,590 deaths, while Brazil reported over 9,283,410 COVID-19 cases with 226,300 deaths. In total, there were at least 103,972,190 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,255,490 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares rose 2.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Clean Energy Fuels Corp. CLNE, up 19%, and SM Energy Company SM, up 10%.
In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell by 1.2%.
Top Headline
Alphabet Inc. GOOGL reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.
Alphabet reported quarterly earnings of $22.30 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $15.90 per share. The company posted revenue of $56.90 billion, versus estimates of $53.13 billion.
Equities Trading UP
Sino-Global Shipping America, Ltd. SINO shares shot up 88% to $8.70
after the company highlighted bitcoin mining efforts with newly appointed Chief Operating Officer Mr. Lei Nie and Chief Technology Officer Mr. Xintang You.
Shares of GW Pharmaceuticals plc GWPH got a boost, shooting 47% to $215.58 after the company announced it will be acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $7.2 billion.
SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. SLS shares were also up, gaining 47% to $12.01 after jumping 34% on Tuesday.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
Vaxart, Inc. VXRT shares tumbled 55% to $10.43 after reporting that neutralizing antibodies were not detected in volunteers after a single dose of its experimental oral COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VXA-CoV2-1, in a Phase 1 trial of 35 healthy adults.
Shares of Moleculin Biotech, Inc. MBRX were down 25% to $4.765 after the company priced its 14,273,684 share common stock offering at $4.75 per share.
NTN Buzztime, Inc. NTN was down, falling 20% to $5.11 after climbing around 37% on Tuesday.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $55.21, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,838.50.
Silver traded up 2.3% Wednesday to $27.015 while copper rose 0.7% to $3.5475.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.5%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.1% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.5%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 climbed 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB surged 2.5%.
Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone increased to 0.9% in January, while producer prices rose 0.8% in December. The IHS Markit Eurozone services PMI rose to 45.4 in January versus a preliminary estimate of 45. UK services PMI declined to 39.5 in January from 49.4 in December.
Economics
US private businesses hired 174,000 workers in January versus a revised 78,000 drop in the previous month.
The IHS Markit services PMI rose to 58.3 in January from a preliminary reading of 57.8.
The ISM services PMI rose to 58.7 in January from 57.7 in December.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker is set to speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester will speak at 5:00 p.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans is set to speak at 5:00 p.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:05 p.m. ET.
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