U.S. stocks opened on downbeat note this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 250 points on Wednesday.
Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.80% to 34,527.50 while the NASDAQ fell 1.22% to 13,937.32. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.82% to 4,474.81.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares jumped by 2.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camber Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CEI), up 8% and Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) up 9%.
In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell by 1.3%.
Top Headline
General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter and raised its FY22 outlook.
General Mills posted adjusted earnings of $0.84 per share, beating market expectations of $0.78 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $4.54 billion, missing estimates of $4.56 billion.
General Mills boosted its FY22 organic net sales growth guidance from 4%-5% to 5%. It also expects adjusted per-share profit between flat and a growth of 2%, versus its prior range of a 2% drop to a 1% growth.
Equities Trading UP
4D pharma plc (NASDAQ:LBPS) shares shot up 65% to $7.70 after the company announced the primary efficacy endpoint was met early in the renal cell carcinoma group in Part B of the study of MRx0518 and KEYTRUDA.
Shares of Zentek Ltd. (NASDAQ:ZTEK) got a boost, shooting 28% to $3.4606. The stock began trading on the Nasdaq on Tuesday following an uplisting from the OTC Pink Sheets.
Allego N.V. (NYSE:ALLG) shares were also up, gaining 20% to $9.98 after the company announced the completion of its merger agreement with Spartan Acquisition Corp., which resulted in 98% of the company notes redeemed at the merger vote. The company is also gaining retail investor interest.
Equities Trading DOWN
GAN Limited (NASDAQ:GAN) shares tumbled 18% to $4.50 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results. The company also issued FY22 sales guidance below analyst estimates.
Shares of Codex DNA, Inc. (NASDAQ:DNAY) were down 18% to $7.56 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS results.
Cue Health Inc. (NASDAQ:HLTH) was down, falling 17% to $7.12. Cue Health recently partnered with Albertsons Companies for COVID-19 test kits.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $111.34, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,929.30.
Silver traded up 1.2% Wednesday to $25.21 while copper rose 1% to $4.7485.
Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.1%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.7%. The German DAX dropped 1.6%, French CAC 40 fell 1.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.1%.
Annual inflation rate in the UK accelerated to 6.2% in February from 5.5% in January, while headline rate of output prices rose to 10.1% year-over-year in February.
Economics
Mortgage applications in the US declined 8.1% in the week ended March 18th.
US new home sales fell 2% to an annual rate of 772,000 in February.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly will speak at 11:45 a.m. ET.
The Treasury will auction 20-year bonds at 1:00 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 81,476,260 cases with around 999,790 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,012,740 cases and 516,630 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,683,680 COVID-19 cases with 657,770 deaths. In total, there were at least 474,776,970 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,123,010 deaths.
