Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises Over 100 Points; Verrica Pharmaceuticals Shares Slide

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.42% to 32,061.88 while the NASDAQ rose 1.48% to 11,431.67. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.85% to 3,975.07.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares rose by 2.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included StoneMor Inc. STON, up 50% and GameStop Corp. GME up 22%.

In trading on Wednesday, health care shares fell 0.5%.

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 50% to $3.41. StoneMor entered into an agreement to be acquired by Axar Capital Management, LP.

Shares of BlackSky Technology Inc. BKSY got a boost, shooting 122% to $2.6152 after the company was awarded a 10-year electro optical commercial layer contract with the U.S. government.

The Very Good Food Company Inc. VGFC shares were also up, gaining 148% to $0.3351 as the company announced it increased retail distribution across Canada with Loblaw Companies.

Equities Trading DOWN

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRCA shares tumbled 60% to $2.22 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 Super Group (SGHC) Limited SGHC were down 21% to $6.40 after reporting Q1 results.

COMSovereign Holding Corp. COMS was down, falling 37% to $0.1711. COMSovereign said Nasdaq sent deficiency notice related to delayed quarterly report.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3% to $110.14, while gold traded down 1.1% to $1,845.70.

Silver traded down 0.9% to $21.875 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.1% to $4.2590.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.63%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.51% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.49%. The German DAX gained 0.63%, French CAC 40 rose 0.73% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.57%.

Producer prices in Spain jumped 45% year-over-year in April following a revised 47% surge in the prior month. French consumer confidence slipped to 86 in May, recording the weakest reading since October 2014. German gross domestic product grew 0.2% on quarter during the first three months of the year, while GfK Consumer Climate Indicator rose to -26 heading into June.

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.

The Federal Open Market Committee released minutes of its latest meeting.

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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.