Dow Jumps 400 Points; S&P 500 Up 1%

U.S. stocks extended gains toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 400 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 1.22% to 33,413.93 while the NASDAQ rose 1.31% to 12,505.33. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.19% to 4,158.84.

Check This Out: Top 5 Consumer Stocks That May Plunge This Quarter

Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Financials shares rose by 2.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SelectQuote, Inc. SLQT, up 35%, and National Western Life Group, Inc. NWLI, up 41%.
• In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 5.04 million barrels in the week ending May 12, 2023, recording the biggest weekly rise in 12 weeks, the EIA said.

Equities Trading UP

• Smart for Life, Inc. SMFL shares shot up 53% to $3.55. Smart for Life announced Wednesday that it had executed a strategic agreement with CloudKitchens for rapid local delivery of its new line of innovative, proprietary, and healthy high-protein ice cream bars.
• Shares of Motus GI Holdings, Inc. MOTS got a boost, shooting 34% to $0.9674 after the company announced it completed the first clinical evaluation of the new Pure-Vu Gastro in upper gastrointestinal procedures to support FDA submission.
• National Western Life Group, Inc. NWLI shares were also up, gaining 41% to $375.21 after the company announced the exploration of strategic alternatives.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ICPT shares dropped 14% to $13.88 following a report suggesting FDA staff concluded Intercept Pharmaceuticals' OCA can cause significant drug-induced liver injury.
• Shares of Cerberus Cyber Sentinel Corporation CISO were down 33% to $0.2020 after the company reported pricing of $4.0 million registered direct offering.
• EVgo, Inc. EVGO was down, falling 18% to $4.7050 after the company announced an offering of Class A common stock.

Also Check This Out: Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts Say Hold These 3 Tech And Telecom Stocks Delivering High-Dividend Yields

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.8% to $72.85 while gold traded down 0.4% at $1,984.50.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $23.89 on Wednesday while copper rose 2.3% to $3.7505.

Stocks of crude oil in the US rose by 3.69 million barrels in the latest week, following a 3.618 million barrel growth a week ago, the API said Tuesday.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.15%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.36% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.22% The German DAX rose 0.34%, French CAC 40 fell 0.09% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.01%.

The Eurozone’s consumer price inflation increased to 7.0% in April versus the prior month's 13-month low level of 6.9%. Passenger car registrations in the European Union surged 17.2% year-over-year to 803,188 units in April.

Italy recorded a trade surplus of EUR 7.5 billion in March, versus a year-ago gap of EUR 0.8 billion. The unemployment rate in France came in steady at 7.1% for the first quarter.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.84%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 2.09% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropping 0.21%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.6%.

The Japanese economy grew by 1.6% on an annualized basis in the first quarter, while industrial production in Japan increased by 1.1 % month-over-month in March. Average new home prices in China's major cities declined by 0.2% year-over-year during April. Australia's wage price index rose by 3.7% year-over-year in the first quarter.

Economics

• U.S. housing starts rose 2.2% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.401 million in April, versus market expectations of 1.4 million.
• Building permits in the U.S. dropped 1.5% to an annual rate of 1.416 million in April.
• U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 5.04 million barrels in the week ending May 12, 2023, recording the biggest weekly rise in 12 weeks, the EIA said.

Now Read This: $12.5M Bet On This Technology Stock? Check Out These 4 Stocks Insiders Are Buying

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 106,831,280 cases with around 1,163,290 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,983,150 cases and 531,790 deaths, while France reported over 40,050,710 COVID-19 cases with 167,050 deaths. In total, there were at least 688,507,400 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,875,780 deaths.