Nasdaq Falls 50 Points; eHealth Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping around 50 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.12% to 33,694.64 while the NASDAQ fell 0.44% to 11,284.18. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.22% to 4,008.11.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Financials shares rose by 0.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Alvarium Tiedemann Holdings Inc ALTI, up 119%, and eHealth Inc EHTH, up 33%.
• In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares tumbled by 1.5%.

 

 

Top Headline

AT&T Inc T reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings.

AT&T reported fourth-quarter FY22 operating revenues of $31.34 billion, up 0.8% year-over-year, marginally missing the consensus of $31.39 billion. Adjusted EPS of $0.61 beat the consensus of $0.57.

AT&T expects adjusted FY23 EPS of $2.35 - $2.45, below the consensus of $2.56.

 

Equities Trading UP

• Ensysce Biosciences, Inc. ENSC shares shot up 37% to $0.93 after the company reported initiation of final stage of opioid overdose protection Phase 1 study.
• Shares of eHealth, Inc. EHTH got a boost, shooting 32% to $7.16 after the company raised its preliminary FY22 revenue guidance.
• Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNOA shares were also up, gaining 55% to $1.86 after the company announced that Microcyn Rx products have received a Distribution and Price Agreement for distribution by the Defense Logistics Agency.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Precigen, Inc. PGEN shares tumbled 26% to $1.63 after the company reported pricing of $75.0 million public offering of common stock.
• Shares of Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. GROM were down 33% to $2.14 after the company reported pricing of $3.0 million private placement priced at-the-market per Nasdaq rules.
• Extreme Networks, Inc. EXTR was down, falling 17% to $16.05. Extreme Networks posted upbeat Q2 results and also announced that CFO Rémi Thomas will leave the company.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $80.13 while gold traded up 0.3% at $1,941.60.

Silver traded up 0.7% to $23.92 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.1% to $4.2475.

Stocks of crude oil in the US climbed by 3.378 million barrels during the latest week, the American Petroleum Institute reported. Stocks of crude oil in the US rose by 0.533 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 20, 2023, the US Energy Information Administration said.

 

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.29%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.16% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.11%. The German DAX declined 0.08% French CAC 40 fell 0.09% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.03%.

The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany increased by 1.6 points from a month ago to 90.2 in January. The producer price inflation in Spain eased to 14.7% year-over-year in December versus a revised 20.5% in the prior month.

UK’s producer inflation increased by 14.7% year-over-year in December.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 adding 0.35% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropping 1.3%. Many Asian markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

Singapore’s annual inflation rate fell to 6.5% in December from 6.7% in the prior two months, while food prices rose by 7.5% year-over-year. The index of leading economic indicators in Japan fell to 97.4 in November compared to preliminary reading of 97.6, while index of coincident economic indicators rose to99.3 in November versus a flash reading of 99.1. The annual inflation rate in Australia increased to 7.8% in Q4 from 7.3% in the prior quarter.

 

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US increased 7% in the week ended Jan. 20, 2023, versus a 27.9% rise in the prior period.
• Stocks of crude oil in the US rose by 0.533 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 20, 2023, the US Energy Information Administration said.

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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 103,907,430 cases with around 1,129,610 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,682,200 cases and 530,730 deaths, while France reported over 39,492,830 COVID-19 cases with 164,000 deaths. In total, there were at least 673,835,660 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,750,150 deaths.