Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; McDonald's Tops Q2 Estimates

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.09% to 35,025.24 while the NASDAQ rose 0.72% to 14,765.75. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.09% to 4,405.46.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 34,606,500 cases with around 611,3050 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 31,484,600 cases and 422,020 deaths, while Brazil reported over 19,749,070 COVID-19 cases with 551,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 195,392,720 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,178,430 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares climbed 1.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included The9 Limited (NASDAQ: NCTY), up 9% and iClick Interactive Asia Group Limited (NASDAQ: ICLK) up 11%.

In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 0.6%.

Top Headline

McDonald's Corporation MCD reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

McDonald's reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.37 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.08 per share. The company’s revenue came in at $5.89 billion, versus expectations of $5.53 billion. Same-store sales for the company surged40.5% in the second quarter

 

Equities Trading UP

Grove, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRVI) shares shot up 31% to $6.08 after the company issued preliminary Q4 sales guidance. The company said it sees preliminary Q4 revenue of $10.1 million to $10.4 million, up 300% year-over-year. The company also expects FY21 revenue of $23.6 million to $23.9 million, up 200% year-over-year.

Shares of Taoping Inc. (NASDAQ: TAOP) got a boost, shooting 21% to $3.75 after the company announced it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire 51% of the ownership of Zhenjiang Taoping.

Bit Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ: BTBT) shares were also up, gaining 20% to $7.09 after tumbling around 34% on Tuesday. Bit Digital and Digihost recently announced they entered into a second strategic co-mining agreement.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Höegh LNG Partners LP HMLP shares tumbled 60% to $7.19 after the company announced it cut its quarterly distribution from $0.44 to $0.01 per unit. Several firms also downgraded the stock.

Shares of Alset EHome International Inc. (NASDAQ: AEI) were down 34% to $2.24 after the company priced its underwritten public offering of about 6.4 million shares at $2.12 per share and its pre-funded warrants offering of about 8.66 million shares at $2.11 per share.

SGOCO Group, Ltd. SGOC was down, falling 15% to $9.40 after jumping around 30% on Tuesday. The company recently regained Nasdaq compliance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $71.98, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,798.50.

Silver traded up 0.8% Wednesday to $24.84 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.5395.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.4%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.7% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.2%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.8% and Italy’s FTSE MIB climbed 0.7%.

The consumer confidence in France declined to 101 in July versus a revised reading of 103 in the earlier month. Annual house price growth in the UK fell to 10.5% in July from a seventeen-year high level of 13.4% in the prior month. Import prices in Germany climbed 12.9% annually in June, while consumer climate indicator for Germany came in unchanged at -0.3 for August. Italy's manufacturing confidence index climbed to 115.7 in July from 114.8 in the prior month.

Economics

The US goods trade deficit increased to $91.21 billion in June from $88.16 billion in the earlier month.

US wholesale inventories rose 0.8% month-over-month to $715 billion in June.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Federal Reserve will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here