Dow Edges Lower; Alphabet Posts Upbeat Results

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Dow Jones turning lower on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.11% to 33,492.84 while the NASDAQ rose 1.16% to 11,936.00. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.27% to 4,082.78.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Information technology shares rose by 2.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TeraWulf Inc. WULF, up 22%, and Bit Digital, Inc. BTBT, up 18%.
• In trading on Wednesday, health care shares dipped by 1.5%.

Top Headline

Alphabet Inc. GOOGL reported better-than-expected Q1 results and announced a $70 billion buyback.

Alphabet reported first-quarter revenue of $69.79 billion, up 3% year-over-year. The revenue total beat a Street estimate of $68.9 billion. The company reported earnings per share of $1.17, which beat a Street estimate of $1.06.

Equities Trading UP

• Crown ElectroKinetics Corp. CRKN shares shot up 163% to $0.2219 after the company issued a letter to shareholders.
• Shares of Panbela Therapeutics, Inc. PBLA got a boost, shooting 42% to $0.5978. HC Wainwright & Co. initiated coverage on Panbela Therapeutics with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $7.
• PROG Holdings, Inc. PRG shares were also up, gaining 18% to $30.27 after the company announced better-than-expected Q1 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Enphase Energy, Inc. ENPH shares dropped 22% to $171.72 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 sales and issued weak Q2 guidance.
• Shares of ZyVersa Therapeutics, Inc. ZVSA were down 70% to $0.4751 after the company announced the pricing of an $11 million public offering.
• Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY was down, falling 36% to $0.1275 after the company received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq. Additionally, the company announced that it would cancel the Special Meeting of Shareholders that was scheduled for May 9.

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Commodities

• In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $76.55 while gold traded up 0.2% at $2,008.60.

Silver traded up 1.1% to $25.15 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.4% to $3.8805.

Stocks of crude oil in the US fell by 6.083 million barrels in the week ended April 21, 2023, the API said.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.03%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.26% The German DAX fell 0.65%, French CAC 40 fell 1.12% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.83%.

Labor productivity in the UK increased 0.4% on quarter during the three months to December. The consumer confidence in France rose to 83 in April versus a revised reading of 82 in the prior month. German GfK Consumer Climate Indicator rose to -25.7 heading into May, the highest level since April 2022.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.71%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.71% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.02%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.1%.

Singapore’s manufacturing production dropped by 4.2% year-over-year for March. The annual inflation rate in Australia eased to 7.0% in the first quarter from 7.8% in the prior period.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US climbed 3.7% in the week ended April 21, 2023.
• U.S. durable goods orders increased by 3.2% from a month ago in March following a revised 1.2% drop in February.
• Wholesale inventories in the U.S. rose 0.1% month-over-month in March.
• The U.S. trade deficit in goods shrank to $84.6 billion in March versus a revised $92 billion gap in the prior month.
• U.S. crude oil inventories dropped by 5.054 million barrels in the week ending April 21, 2023, versus market expectations for a 1.486 million decline.

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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 106,585,470 cases with around 1,159,410 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,905,820 cases and 531,360 deaths, while France reported over 39,960,320 COVID-19 cases with 166,420 deaths. In total, there were at least 686,647,370 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,860,770 deaths.