S&P 500 Rises 0.5%; Crude Oil Falls Sharply

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.40% to 30,829.94 while the NASDAQ rose 0.31% to 11,460.00. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.50% to 3,875.30.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Industrials shares rose by 1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included FREYR Battery FREY, up 17% and FTAI Infrastructure Inc. FIP up 10%.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell by 0.3%.

Top Headline

US crude oil inventories climbed by 1.142 million barrels in the week ended September 16th, versus market estimates of a 2.161-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.

Equities Trading UP

• Stabilis Solutions, Inc. SLNG shares shot up 100% to $10.32 after the company announced it has received authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas to all free trade and non-free trade countries.
• Shares of ECMOHO Limited MOHO got a boost, shooting 60% to $0.1859. ECMOHO announced that it has received delisting notice from the Nasdaq. The company said it has elected to not appeal Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Department's determination.
• Evaxion Biotech A/S EVAX shares were also up, gaining 51% to $3.09 as the company reached an important milestone announcing that it had enrolled its first patient in the global phase 2b clinical trial of EVX-01, its personalized cancer therapy.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Sesen Bio, Inc. SESN shares tumbled 39% to $0.4101. Sesen Bio and privately held Carisma Therapeutics Inc have entered into a merger agreement to combine the companies in an all-stock transaction.
• Shares of ShiftPixy, Inc. PIXY were down 36% to $13.87 after the company announced pricing of a $5 million private placement.
• Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corporation ADMP was down, falling 41% to $0.2138 as the company announced the results from the third planned interim analysis of the Phase 2/3 clinical trial of Tempol in high-risk subjects with early COVID-19 infection. The trial did not achieve its primary endpoint, as measured by comparing the rate of sustained clinical resolution of symptoms of COVID-19 at day 14 of Tempol versus placebo.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.1% to $82.70, while gold traded up 0.3% at $1,675.50.

Silver traded up 1.3% to $19.435 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.2% to $3.46.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.78%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.52% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.15%. The German DAX gained 0.55%, French CAC 40 rose 0.7% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.93%.

Public sector net borrowing, excluding public sector banks, in the UK came in at £11.8 billion for August.

Economics

• Existing home sales in the US fell 0.4% to an annual rate of 4.8 million in August, recording the lowest reading since May 2020, and compared to a revised 5.7% decline in the previous month.
• US crude oil inventories climbed by 1.142 million barrels in the week ended September 16th, versus market estimates of a 2.161-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.
• The Federal Reserve will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET. The country’s central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates by 75 bps at the meeting.
• Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 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 97,594,680 cases with around 1,079,200 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,547,590 cases and 528,400 deaths, while France reported over 34,973,410 COVID-19 cases with 154,790 deaths. In total, there were at least 618,209,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,533,620 deaths.