U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 300 points on Wednesday.
The Dow traded up 0.45% to 31,904.19 while the NASDAQ rose 2.77% to 11,883.01. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.52% to 3,980.56.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Communication services shares rose 4.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Leafly Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFLY), up 60% and Spotify Technology S.A.. (NYSE:SPOT) up 14%.
In trading on Wednesday, health care shares fell 0.4%.
Top Headline
Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) reported a second-quarter revenue decline of 2% year-over-year to $16.68 billion, missing the consensus of $17.55 billion. Adjusted EPS loss widened to $(0.37) from $(0.40) in 2Q21, missing the consensus of $(0.16).
Equities Trading UP
Blue Water Vaccines, Inc. (NASDAQ:BWV) shares shot up 56% to $3.2008. Blue Water Vaccines recently announced signing of sponsored research agreement with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center for S&P vaccine platform development.
Shares of Pzena Investment Management, Inc (NYSE:PZN) got a boost, shooting 46% to $9.39 as the company said it has entered into an agreement to become a private company. The company also reported a rise quarterly sales.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) shares were also up, gaining 23% to $8.78 after the company reported better-than-expected financial results.
Equities Trading DOWN
F45 Training Holdings Inc. (NYSE:FXLV) shares tumbled 65% to $1.2450 after the company cut its FY22 sales guidance to below analyst estimates. Macquarie and Baird downgraded the stock to Neutral.
Shares of Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA) were down 22% to $16.94. The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Cassava Sciences on whether it manipulated research results for its investigational Alzheimer's drug, Reuters reported citing two people familiar with the inquiry.
ObsEva SA (NASDAQ:OBSV) was down, falling 74% to $0.4185 after the company announced a restructuring and the termination of the license agreement with Kissei for linzagolix.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 2.8% to $97.59, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,718.40.
Silver traded up 0.2% to $18.58 on Wednesday while copper rose 1.2% to $3.4245.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.47%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.57% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.68%. The German DAX gained 0.53%, French CAC 40 rose 0.75% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.52%.
Loans to households in the Eurozone increased 4.6% year-over-year in June. Italian consumer confidence fell to 94.8 in July from 98.3 a month ago, while manufacturing confidence declined to 106.7 in July from a revised 109.5. Consumer confidence in France declined for the seventh month running to 80 in July.
Economics
U.S. durable goods orders increased 1.9% from a month ago in June.
The goods gap in the US shrank to $98.2 billion in June from a revised $104 billion in May.
Wholesale inventories in the US rose 1.9% month-over-month to $896.0 billion in June.
Pending home sales in the US dropped 8.6% month-over-month in June, after rising 0.4% in May.
US crude oil inventories dropped by 4.523 million barrels in the week ended July 22, the most in 8 weeks and higher than analysts’ estimates for a 1.037-million-barrel declined, the Energy Information Administration said.
The Federal Reserve will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET. The Fed is projected to increase its federal funds policy rate by 75 basis points for a second consecutive meeting.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.
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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 92,494,010 cases with around 1,052,930 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,938,760 cases and 526,160 deaths, while Brazil reported over 33,660,600 COVID-19 cases with 677,560 deaths. In total, there were at least 577,475,760 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,407,980 deaths.
