U.S. stocks traded lower this morning following the release of inflation data for June.
Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.95% to 30,687.35 while the NASDAQ fell 0.79% to 11,176.27. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.94% to 3,782.74.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares rose by 0.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SilverBow Resources, Inc. (NYSE:SBOW), up 7% and Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) up 4%.
In trading on Wednesday, materials shares dipped by 1.5%.
Top Headline
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%.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 1.3% month-over-month in June vs.+1.1% consensus and +1.0% in the last reading.
Equities Trading UP
Qurate Retail, Inc. (NASDAQ:QRTEB) shares shot up 123% to $6.78. Qurate Retail will host a conference call to discuss Q2 results on Friday, August 5th.
Shares of ironSource Ltd. (NYSE:IS) got a boost, shooting 51% to $3.37 after the company announced an all-stock merger agreement with Unity Software at an approximate $4.4 billion.
MDJM Ltd (NASDAQ:MDJH) shares were also up, gaining 31% to $2.80.
Equities Trading DOWN
Humanigen, Inc. (NASDAQ:HGEN) shares tumbled 76% to $0.7005 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 Netcapital Inc. (NASDAQ:NCPL) were down 15% to $2.56 after the company reported pricing of public offering and Nasdaq listing.
Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) was down, falling 55% to $3.85 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 0.4% to $96.19, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,722.60
Silver traded down 0.1% to $18.95 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.2% to $3.2480.
Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.8%. The German DAX dropped 1.4%, French CAC 40 fell 1.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.2%.
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%.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.
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.
