U.S. stocks pared some losses midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite turning higher on Wednesday. The annual inflation rate in the US increased to 9.1% in June, the highest level since November 1981.
The Dow traded down 0.58% to 30,800.64 while the NASDAQ rose 0.19% to 11,285.78. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.27% to 3,808.63.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Consumer discretionary shares rose by 1.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Stitch Fix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFIX), up 18% and Boxed, Inc. (NYSE:BOXD) up 19%.
In trading on Wednesday, financials shares dipped by 1.1%.
Top Headline
Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Wednesday.
Delta Air Lines reported a second-quarter FY22 adjusted operating revenue decline of 1% from 1Q19 to $12.31 billion. GAAP operating revenue was $13.82 billion, a growth of 10% from 1Q19. Analysts expected the company to report revenues of $13.40 billion. Adjusted EPS was $1.44 below the consensus of $1.64.
Equities Trading UP
The OLB Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:OLB) shares shot up 42% to $1.32 after the company announced that its board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program of up to 1,000,000 million shares of its outstanding shares of common stock.
Shares of ironSource Ltd. (NYSE:IS) got a boost, shooting 49% to $3.32 after the company announced an all-stock merger agreement with Unity Software at an approximate $4.4 billion.
XORTX Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:XRTX) shares were also up, gaining 33% to $1.64 after the company announced topline results from Part 1 of the 3 part Pharmacokinetics Bridging Study showed a substantial increase in oral bioavailability of two versions of its proprietary oxypurinol formulation.
Equities Trading DOWN
Humanigen, Inc. (NASDAQ:HGEN) shares tumbled 77.2% to $0.6832 after the company was informed of preliminary topline results showing its ACTIV-5/BET-B trial did not achieve statistical significance on the primary endpoint. Roth Capital, HC Wainwright & Co. and Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded the stock to Neutral.
Shares of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:AGTC) were down 53% to $0.4026 after the company announced pricing of a $10 million underwritten public offering.
Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) was down, falling 54% to $4.02 after the company completed a planned interim analysis of the ATA188 Phase 2 study. A safety monitoring committee said it believes the six-month interim endpoint may be an inaccurate measure. Stifel and JP Morgan downgraded their ratings on the stock.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $95.89, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,730.00.
Silver traded up 0.7% to $19.095 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.1% to $3.2535.
Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.38%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.07% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.19%. The German DAX dropped 1.66%, French CAC 40 fell 1.26% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.47%.
The annual inflation rate in France increased to 5.8% in June, the highest since July 1985, while annual inflation rate in Germany eased for the first time in five months to 7.6% in June. Annual inflation rate in Spain accelerated to 10.2% in June from 8.7% in May.
The UK trade deficit shrank to GBP 9.7 billion in May from a revised GBP 9.8 billion in the prior month, while industrial production increased by 0.9% from a month ago in May. The British economy grew 0.5% month-over-month in May following a 0.2% contraction in the previous month.
Economics
The annual inflation rate in the US increased to 9.1% in June, the highest level since November 1981, compared to 8.6% in May and also higher than analysts’ expectations of 8.8%.
US crude-oil inventories climbed 3.3 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.
The Treasury is set to auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.
The Federal Open Market Committee will release its Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.
The U.S. Treasury budget statement for June will released at 2:00 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 90,683,220 cases with around 1,046,610 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,672,150 cases and 525,510 deaths, while Brazil reported over 33,005,270 COVID-19 cases with 674,160 deaths. In total, there were at least 563,110,390 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,377,010 deaths.
