Dow Surges Over 100 Points; Charter Communications Shares Slide

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

The Dow traded up 0.42% to 34,252.62 while the NASDAQ rose 0.47% to 11,309.44. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.47% to 4,038.37.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 1.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Genie Energy Ltd. GNE, up 5%, and Cadiz Inc. CDZI, up 9%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

US import prices fell 0.6% from a month ago in November versus a revised 0.4% drop in the prior month. Export prices declined by 0.3% from a month earlier.

Equities Trading UP

• Avidity Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNA) shares shot up 75% to $19.19 after the company announced AOC 1001 data from the preliminary assessment of the Phase 1/2 MARINA trial demonstrating the first-ever successful targeted delivery of RNA into muscle.
• Shares of Vallon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. VLON got a boost, shooting 88% to $0.4724 after the company entered into a definitive merger agreement with GRI Bio.
• Immix Biopharma, Inc. IMMX shares were also up, gaining 54% to $2.2800 after the company announced it has in-licensed BCMA-targeted next-generation CAR-T therapy NXC-201 with 85% ORR and 71% CR/sCR at the therapeutic dose from the first 20 patients in an ongoing phase 1b relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma ongoing clinical trial.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Netcapital Inc. (NASDAQ: NCPL) shares tumbled 29% to $1.56 after the company announced pricing of a public offering.
• Shares of Yumanity Therapeutics, Inc. YMTX were down 11% to $1.80. Yumanity Therapeutics recently declared a special dividend in connection with the proposed asset sale to Janssen and merger with Kineta.
• Charter Communications, Inc. CHTR was down, falling 11% to $347.98 after it communicated an increase in 2023 capital expenditures at its analyst day held on Tuesday.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $76.63 while gold traded down 0.2% at $1,822.20.

Silver traded up 0.2% to $24.04 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.4% to $3.8590.

Stocks of crude oil in the US increased by 7.819 million barrels in the week ended December 9, versus a 6.426 million-barrels decline in the prior week, the American Petroleum Institute said.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 0.2%. The German DAX dropped 0.4%, French CAC 40 fell 0.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.3%.

Industrial production in the Eurozone dropped 2.0% from a month ago in September, following a revised 0.8% increase in September. Spain's consumer price inflation declined to 6.8% year-over-year in November, compared to July's 38-year high level of 10.8%. The annual inflation rate in the UK fell to 10.7% in November from 11.1% a month ago.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday, with the Japan’s Nikkei gaining 0.72% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 0.39%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.01%.

The annual wholesale price inflation rate in India eased to 5.85% in November from 8.39% in the previous month. Industrial production in Japan dropped by 3.2% month-over-month in October following a final 1.7% decline a month ago. Japan's core machinery orders rose 5.4% month-over-month in October

Economics

US import prices fell 0.6% from a month ago in November versus a revised 0.4% drop in the prior month. Export prices declined by 0.3% from a month earlier.

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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 101,419,850 cases with around 1,110,560 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,676,360 cases and 530,650 deaths, while France reported over 38,612,750 COVID-19 cases with 169,000 deaths. In total, there were at least 655,097,450 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,662,410 deaths.