Crude Oil Rises Over 1%; United Natural Foods Posts Downbeat Results

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with Dow Jones gaining around 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.30% to 33,672.74 while the NASDAQ fell 1.11% to 13,129.19. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.33% to 4,269.84.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares jumped by 2.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Nine Energy Service, Inc. NINE, up 8%, and Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR, up 8%.
• In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell by 1.6%.

 

 

Top Headline

 

United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI posted downbeat results for its third quarter.

United Natural Foods reported third-quarter FY23 sales growth of 3.7% year-over-year to $7.501 billion, missing the consensus of $7.51 billion. Adjusted EPS of $0.54 (-50.9% Y/Y) missed the consensus of $0.68.

The company lowered its FY23 profitability outlook. It now expects FY23 adjusted EPS of $1.80 - $2.30 (prior view $3.05 - $3.90) versus the consensus of $3.32. The company sees Adjusted EBITDA of $610 million - $650 million (prior view $715 million - $785 million).

 

Equities Trading UP

• Yext, Inc. YEXT shares shot up 40% to $13.48 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and issued strong FY24 forecast.
• Shares of Farmer Bros. Co. FARM got a boost, shooting 65% to $3.1909. Treehouse Foods inked a deal with Farmer Brothers to acquire certain assets for around $100 million, subject to customary purchase price adjustments.
• Stitch Fix, Inc. SFIX shares were also up, gaining 29% to $4.7450 as the company reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

 

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Vaxart, Inc. VXRT shares dropped 28% to $0.8952 after the company reported pricing of $15 million public offering of common stock.
• Shares of PolarityTE, Inc. PTE were down 38% to $0.2689. On June 6, 2023, PolarityTE Filed Voluntary Petitions For Relief Under Chapter 11 Of The United States Bankruptcy Code
• Couchbase, Inc. BASE was down, falling 26% to $16.52 after the company posted first-quarter earnings and issued weak second-quarter sales forecast.

 

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Commodities

 

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $72.61 while gold traded down 1% at $1,961.50.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $23.585 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.4% to $3.7525.

 

Euro zone

 

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.19%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.05% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.53% The German DAX dropped 0.2% French CAC 40 fell 0.09% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.07%.

Retail sales in Italy rose 0.2% from the prior month in April. France reported a current account gap of EUR 0.1 billion in April 2023, versus a revised EUR 0.3 billion surplus in the prior month. French trade deficit increased to EUR 9.7 billion in April versus a revised EUR 8.4 billion gap in the prior month. Industrial production in Germany rose 0.3% month-over-month in April. The Halifax house price index in the UK declined 1% year-over-year in May.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

 

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.82%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.80% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.08%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.56%.

Foreign exchange reserves in Hong Kong fell to a seven-month low of $421 billion in May, while Chinese foreign exchange reserves declined to $3.177 trillion in May. Chinese trade surplus narrowed to $65.81 billion in May from $78.40 billion in the year-ago period.

The index of leading economic indicators in Japan rose to 97.6 in April from a final reading of 96.9 in the prior month, while index of coincident economic indicators climbed to 99.4 in April versus a 99.2 in the previous month.

 

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the U.S. dropped 1.4% in the week ended June 2, 2023.
• The trade deficit in the U.S. increased to a six-month high level of $74.6 billion in April, versus a $60.6 billion gap in the prior month. Exports from the U.S. fell by $9.2 billion from a month ago to $249 billion in April, while imports rose by $4.8 billion to $323.6 billion.
• U.S. crude oil inventories dropped by 0.451 million barrels in the week ending June 2, versus market estimates of a 1.022 million gain.

 

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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 107,147,350 cases with around 1,166,160 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,992,090 cases and 531,880 deaths, while France reported over 40,102,440 COVID-19 cases with 167,420 deaths. In total, there were at least 690,000,260 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,888,820 deaths.