Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Gains Over 100 Points; Bed Bath & Beyond Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.33% to 33,787.64 while the NASDAQ fell 0.62% to 13,908.97. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.22% to 4,132.40.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 31,346,920 cases with around 563,440 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 13,873,820 cases and 172,080 deaths, while Brazil reported over 13,599,990 COVID-19 cases with 358,420 deaths. In total, there were at least 137,515,910 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 2,961,460 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 2.8% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Centennial Resource Development, Inc. CDEV, up 16%, and Transocean Ltd. RIG, up 14%.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell 0.8%.

Top Headline

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

JPMorgan reported quarterly earnings of $4.50 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $3.10 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $33.1 billion, versus expectations of $30.52 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Kymera Therapeutics, Inc. KYMR shares shot up 15% to $35.67 after Berenberg initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating.

Shares of Nurix Therapeutics, Inc. NRIX got a boost, shooting 14% to $30.30 after Berenberg initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating.

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. TV shares were also up, gaining 23% to $12.48 after the company reached an agreement with Univision to sell its content and media assets in a deal valued at $4.8 billion. Televisa will receive $3 billion in cash and $1.5 billion in Univision equity.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

LifeMD, Inc. LFMD shares tumbled 24% to $9.02 following recent tweets from short seller, Culper Research, including 'We're short LifeMD, Inc. $LFMD...'

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY were down 10% to $25.18 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results. The company also reaffirmed its FY21 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

CorMedix Inc. CRMD was down, falling 16% to $7.88. CorMedix said it met with the FDA to discuss proposed resolutions for deficiencies in CRL for DefenCath NDA.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 5% to $63.16, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,736.10.

Silver traded up 0.1% Wednesday to $25.445 while copper rose 2.1% to $4.1145.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.19%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.74% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.17%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.4% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.71% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.1%.

Industrial production in the Eurozone fell 1.0% in February, versus a 0.8% rise in January. Labor productivity in the UK dropped 4.3% on quarter during October-December 2020, versus a preliminary estimate of a 4.5% decline.

Economics

Import prices in the US rose 1.2% in March following a 1.3% increase in February. Prices for US exports climbed 2.1% in March after rising 1.6% a month ago.

The Federal Open Market Committee released its recent Beige Book report.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will speak at 3:45 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:05 a.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here