US Stocks Edge Higher; Nasdaq Rises 50 Points

U.S. stocks traded slightly higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 50 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.11% to 32,946.26 while the NASDAQ rose 0.43% to 12,434.97. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.24% to 4,138.46.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 1.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Energy Fuels Inc. UUUU, up 15% and Denison Mines Corp. DNN up 14%.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

U.S. durable goods orders came in unchanged from a month ago in July, versus analysts’ estimates of a 0.6% increase and compared to a revised 2.2% growth in the previous month.

Equities Trading UP

• GigaCloud Technology Inc. GCT shares shot up 22% to $32.38 after dipping over 35% on Tuesday. Gigacloud Technology recently priced its IPO at $12.25 per share.
• Shares of Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. TRQ got a boost, shooting 24% to $28.98 after Rio Tinto Group raised its offer to buy out Turquoise Hill Resources.
• Farfetch Limited FTCH shares were also up, gaining 18% to $9.25 after the company announced the acquisition of a 47.5% stake in YNAP.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Starbox Group Holdings Ltd. STBX shares tumbled 25% to $11.62 after jumping 285% on Tuesday. Starbox Group priced 5 million share IPO at $4.00 per share.
• Shares of Nordstrom, Inc. JWN were down 19% to $18.81. Nordstrom reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter, but lowered its FY22 outlook.
• Citi Trends, Inc. CTRN was down, falling 16% to $25.54 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 results.

Also check out: Macy's, Palo Alto Networks And Other Big Gainers From Tuesday

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $94.26, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,758.80.

Silver traded down 0.7% to $18.885 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.3% to $3.6475.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.4%. The German DAX dropped 0.1%, French CAC 40 rose 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.1%.

Economics

• U.S. durable goods orders came in unchanged from a month ago in July, versus analysts’ estimates of a 0.6% increase and compared to a revised 2.2% growth in the previous month.
• Pending home sales fell 1% month-over-month in July versus a revised 8.9% decline in June.
• The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.
• The survey of business uncertainty report for August is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury is set to auction 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out this: Investor Optimism Decreases Further As Dow Tumbles 150 Points

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 95,537,990 cases with around 1,066,410 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,368,190 cases and 527,450 deaths, while France reported over 34,387,610 COVID-19 cases with 153,700 deaths. In total, there were at least 602,725,910 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,477,000 deaths.