U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 400 points on Wednesday.
The Dow traded up 1.51% to 29,575.89 while the NASDAQ rose 1.52% to 10,994.11. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.56% to 3,704.06.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares jumped by 3.7% on Wednesday.
In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares rose by just 0.4%.
Top Headline
US crude oil inventories dropped by 0.215 million barrels in the week ended September 23rd, versus market estimates of a 0.443-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.
Equities Trading UP
PepGen Inc. (NASDAQ:PEPG) shares shot up 85% to $9.62 after the company announced results from its Phase 1 healthy volunteer trial of PGN-EDO51 for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The trial met its primary endpoint.
Shares of bioAffinity Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIAF) got a boost, shooting 37% to $2.90 after the company announced it received an additional $7.7 million from the exercise of warrants.
Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABOS) shares were also up, gaining 105% to $9.64 after Biogen and Eisai announced their Phase 3 Clarity study of lecanemab met its primary endpoint.
Equities Trading DOWN
Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. (NASDAQ:MNMD) shares tumbled 50% to $3.06 after the company priced a 7.05 million share offering of common shares and warrants at $4.25 per share plus warrants.
Shares of Nano Labs Ltd (NASDAQ:NA) were down 33% to $2.1225 after the company priced a roughly 2.08 million ADS public offering at $2.40 per ADS.
PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PHAS) was down, falling 65% to $0.2660 after the company announced it received a notice that its partner SFJ Pharmaceuticals Group elected to transfer bentracimab rights to SFJ as PhaseBio failed to remedy its Going Concern Condition.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 4.7% to $82.22, while gold traded up 2% at $1,668.80.
Silver traded up 3.1% to $18.905 on Wednesday while copper rose 3.2% to $3.3870.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.05%. The German DAX gained 0.36%, French CAC 40 rose 0.19% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.52%.
Italian consumer confidence declined by 3.5 points from the previous month to 94.8 in September, while manufacturing confidence slipped to 101.3 in September a revised 104 in the earlier month. Consumer confidence in France fell to 79 in September from 82 a month ago. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator in Germany dropped to -42.5 heading into October versus a revised -36.8 a month ago.
Economics
The trade gap on goods in the US shrank for a fifth straight month to $87.3 billion in August, the lowest since October last year. Imports declined 1.7%, while exports fell 0.9% last month.
Wholesale inventories in the US increased by 1.3% month-over-month to $913.1 billion in August following a 0.6% rise in the previous month.
Pending home sales in the US dropped 2% month-over-month in August versus market expectations for a 1.4% decline.
US crude oil inventories dropped by 0.215 million barrels in the week ended September 23rd, versus market estimates of a 0.443-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.
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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 97,991,490 cases with around 1,082,280 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,579,080 cases and 528,580 deaths, while France reported over 35,238,170 COVID-19 cases with 155,000 deaths. In total, there were at least 621,365,450 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,543,260 deaths.
