U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 250 points on Wednesday.
Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.41% to 31,892.38 while the NASDAQ rose 2.16% to 11,808.12. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.12% to 3,965.14.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Communication services shares rose 3.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Leafly Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LFLY), up 32% and Spotify Technology S.A.. (NYSE:SPOT) up 16%.
In trading on Wednesday, materials shares fell 1.2%.
Top Headline
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) reported downbeat earnings for its second quarter on Tuesday. However, revenue for the company’s Search and Other segment was $40.7 billion, up 13.7% year-over-year.
Equities Trading UP
Blue Water Vaccines, Inc. (NASDAQ:BWV) shares shot up 70% to $3.4902. 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 $9.40 as the company said it has entered into an agreement to become a private company. The company also reported a rise quarterly sales.
AlloVir, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALVR) shares were also up, gaining 19% to $5.49 after the company announced a registered direct offering of 27.5 million shares at $4.61 per share.
Equities Trading DOWN
F45 Training Holdings Inc. (NYSE:FXLV) shares tumbled 75% to $0.8840 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 28% to $15.59. 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.
Turning Point Brands, Inc. (NYSE:TPB) was down, falling 18% to $24.47 after the company released financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022, revealing net sales decreased 16.1%, compared to Q2 2021 to $102.9 million.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $96.00, while gold traded down 0.3% to $1,712.90.
Silver traded down 0.7% to $18.41 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.7% to $3.4080.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.5%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.6% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.7%. The German DAX gained 0.4%, French CAC 40 rose 0.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.2%.
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.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.
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.
