Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Rise; Nasdaq Gains 100 Points

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 100 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.30% to 32,024.49 while the NASDAQ rose 0.89% to 11,364.49. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.59% to 3,964.65.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares rose by 2.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included StoneMor Inc. STON, up 51% and Caleres, Inc. CAL up 28%.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

DICK'S Sporting Goods, Inc. DKS reported upbeat earnings and sales results for its first quarter.

Dick's posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.85 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.47 per share. The company’s sales came in at $2.70 billion, versus expectations of $2.59 billion.

Dick's said it sees FY22 adjusted EPS of $9.15 to $11.70 and comparable store sales of negative 8% to negative 2%.

 

Equities Trading UP

StoneMor Inc. STON shares shot up 51% to $3.42. StoneMor entered into an agreement to be acquired by Axar Capital Management, LP.

Shares of Höegh LNG Partners LP HMLP got a boost, shooting 32% to $9.02 after the company announced it will be acquired by Hoegh LNG Holdings for $9.25 per share in cash. The company also reported better-than-expected Q1 results.

Caleres, Inc. CAL shares were also up, gaining 29% to $27.07 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results and raised FY22 guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRCA shares tumbled 60% to $2.25 after the company announced it received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA for its NDA for VP-102 as a direct result of deficiencies at general reinspection of Sterling Pharmaceuticals Services, LLC.

Shares of China Liberal Education Holdings Limited CLEU were down 28% to $1.80.

MSP Recovery, Inc. MSPR was down, falling 25% to $3.79.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $110.78, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,855.50.

Silver traded down 0.9% to $21.875 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.3% to $4.2485.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.8%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.6%. The German DAX gained 0.8%, French CAC 40 rose 0.9% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.6%.

The S&P Global Flash Eurozone services PMI declined to 56.3 in May from 57.7 in April, while manufacturing PMI slipped to 54.4 from 55.5. UK’s services PMI fell to 51.8 in May from 58.9 in April, while manufacturing PMI dropped to a 16-month low of 54.6 in May.

French composite PMI slipped to 57.1 in May from April's 51-month high of 57.6, while German composite PMI rose to 54.6 from 54.3.

Economics

US durable goods orders rose 0.4% month-over-month to $265.3 billion in April.

US crude oil inventories declined by 1.019 million barrels in the week ended May 20th, the Energy Information Administration said.

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak at 12:15 p.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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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 85,241,010 cases with around 1,029,520 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,142,190 cases and 524,500 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,836,810 COVID-19 cases with 665,950 deaths. In total, there were at least 529,165,590 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,304,060 deaths.