Crude Oil Edges Lower; VCI Global Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.40% to 34,425.29 while the NASDAQ rose 1.40% to 13,694.79. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.88% to 4,426.35.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 2.1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 0.7%.

 

Top Headline

U.S. crude oil inventories declined by 6.135 million barrels in the week to Aug. 18, 2023, compared to market estimates for a 2.85 million barrel decline.

 

Equities Trading UP

VCI Global Limited VCIG shares shot up 83% to $6.86 after the company announced a collaboration with Microsoft Azure OpenAI.

Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. APLS got a boost, shooting 33% to $40.96 after the company said events of retinal vasculitis in treatment with SYFOVRE were rare, with an estimated real-world rate of 0.01% per injection.

iTeos Therapeutics, Inc. ITOS shares were also up, gaining 32% to $15.51 following release of Roche NSCLC data.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Ideanomics, Inc. IDEX shares dropped 27% to $0.0388. The company announced a 1-for-125 reverse stock split.

Shares of Foot Locker, Inc. FL were down 34% to $15.35 after the company reported a second-quarter revenue miss and an 11% rise in inventories. The company also lowered its gross margin guidance, citing more aggressive markdowns.

Peloton Interactive, Inc. PTON was down, falling 23% to $5.41 after the company reported mixed fourth-quarter results and a quarterly decline in Connected Fitness subscribers. The company also issued soft first-quarter revenue guidance.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $79.14 while gold traded up 1% at $1,945.00.

Silver traded up 3.7% to $24.31 on Wednesday while copper rose 1.5% to $3.8115.

 

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.42% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.71% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.07% The German DAX gained 0.13% French CAC 40 rose 0.10%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.33%.

The HCOB Eurozone services PMI declined to 48.3 in August from 50.9 in July, while manufacturing PMI rose to 43.7 in August from 42.7 in the prior month. The HCOB Germany Composite PMI fell to 44.7 in August from 48.5 in July, while French composite PMI stood at 46.6 for August.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI declined to 42.5 in August from 45.3 in the prior month, while services PMI fell to 48.7 from 51.5.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising 0.48%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 1.34% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.31%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.33%.

The au Jibun Bank Japan services PMI rose to a three-month high level of 54.3 in August, while manufacturing PMI increased to 49.7 in August from 49.6 in July.

 

Economics

The S&P Global US manufacturing PMI declined to 47 in August from 49 in July, while services PMI slipped to 51 in August from 52.3 a month ago. US composite PMI fell to 50.4 in August.

Building permits in the U.S. rose by 0.1% to an annual rate of 1.443 million in July.

Mortgage applications in the U.S. declined 4.2% in the week ending Aug. 18, 2023.

Sales of new single-family houses in the U.S. rose 4.4% to an annualized rate of 714,000 in July.

U.S. crude oil inventories declined by 6.135 million barrels in the week to Aug. 18, 2023, compared to market estimates for a 2.85 million barrel 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 107,866,900 cases with around 1,172,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,996,670 cases and 531,920 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 694,057,650 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,909,700 deaths.