S&P 500 Up 1%; Bluebird Bio Shares Plummet

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the S&P 500 gaining over 1% on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.74% to 32,632.35 while the NASDAQ rose 1.51% to 11,893.07. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.14% to 4,016.45.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Information technology shares jumped by 1.8% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Limited KC, up 21%, and Cipher Mining Inc. CIFR, up 15%.
• In trading on Wednesday, health care shares rose by just 0.04%.

Top Headline

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.

Equities Trading UP

• Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. ARCT shares shot up 28% to $19.90 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.
• Shares of LogicMark, Inc. LGMK got a boost, shooting 64% to $0.2290 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 38% to $0.6180 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 27% to $1.2210 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results.
• Shares of ProQR Therapeutics N.V. PRQR were down 33% to $2.4050. ProQR Therapeutics posted a FY loss of €0.91 per share.
• bluebird bio, Inc. BLUE was down, falling 25% to $3.25 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 down 0.3% to $72.97 while gold traded down 0.3% at $1,968.60.

Silver traded up 0.4% to $23.52 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.2% to $4.0760.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.3%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.07% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 1.41%. The German DAX gained 1.23%, French CAC 40 rose 1.39% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.56%.

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.