Nasdaq Rises 1%; US Pending Home Sales Increase In February

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

The Dow traded up 0.58% to 32,580.89 while the NASDAQ rose 1.09% to 11,843.85. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.90% to 4,006.83.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Real estate shares jumped by 1.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SL Green Realty Corp. SLG, up 5%, and Newmark Group, Inc. NMRK, up 6%.
• In trading on Wednesday, health care shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

Pending home sales in the US rose 0.8% month-over-month in February to the highest level since August, versus an 8.1% increase in the previous month and also topping market expectations for a 2.3% decline.

Equities Trading UP

• Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. ARCT shares shot up 23% to $19.10 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.
• Shares of LogicMark, Inc. LGMK got a boost, shooting 71% to $0.2394 after the company announced financial results for the year ended 2022. The company reported FY22 revenue of $11.9 million.
• Local Bounti Corporation LOCL shares were also up, gaining 34% to $0.6001 after the company announced it secured up to $145 million of additional financing to support growth. The company also reported Q4 financial results and issued guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Shift Technologies, Inc. SFT shares dropped 29% to $1.20 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results.
• Shares of ProQR Therapeutics N.V. PRQR were down 32% to $2.4285. ProQR Therapeutics posted a FY loss of €0.91 per share.
• bluebird bio, Inc. BLUE was down, falling 28% to $3.0950 after the company reported Q4 and full year 2022 financial results. Also, a Bloomberg report suggesting Bluebird Bio expects a delay on its FDA sickle cell drug application is also impacting the stock.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4% to $74.21 while gold traded down 0.3% at $1,967.30.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $23.435 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.6% to $4.1090.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.22%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.02% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 1.4%. The German DAX gained 1.19%, French CAC 40 rose 1.46% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.42%.

Consumer credit in the UK rose by £1.413 billion in February versus a revised £1.686 billion increase in the previous month. The consumer confidence in France declined to 81 in March from 82 a month ago, while German GfK Consumer Climate Indicator rose for a sixth straight month to a reading of -29.5 heading into April.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.33%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 2.06% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.16%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.3%.

Singapore’s Domestic Supply Price Index fell 4.7% year-over-year in February versus a revised 1.5% drop in the prior month.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US climbed 2.9% in the week ended March 24, 2023.
• Pending home sales in the US rose 0.8% month-over-month in February to the highest level since August, versus an 8.1% increase in the previous month and also topping market expectations for a 2.3% decline.
• US crude oil inventories dropped by 7.489 million barrels in the week ended March 24, 2023, versus market estimates of a 0.092 million barrel rise, the 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 106,120,650 cases with around 1,153,970 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,709,670 cases and 530,840 deaths, while France reported over 39,771,700 COVID-19 cases with 165,570 deaths. In total, there were at least 683,539,740 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,828,510 deaths.