Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Edges Lower; Brinker International Shares Surge Following Upbeat Earnings

US stocks pared earlier gains, with the Nasdaq Composite turning lower on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. GOOGL reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter and also announced a 20-for-1 stock split.

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.10% to 35,439.05 while the NASDAQ fell 0.04% to 14,340.88. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.39% to 4,564.17.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped 2.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Communication Services GOOGL, up 7% and Match Group, Inc. MTCH up 7%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc TMO reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter.

Thermo Fisher Scientific posted Q4 revenues of $10.70 billion, up 1% Y/Y, beating the consensus of $9.29 billion. Adjusted EPS decreased 7.8% to $6.54, ahead of the consensus of $5.26.

Equities Trading UP

Helbiz, Inc. HLBZ shares shot up 12% to $3.44. Helbiz’s CEO bought 1 million shares at an average price of $3.64 per share.

Shares of Allegheny Technologies Incorporated ATI got a boost, shooting 17% to $22.03 after the company posted upbeat Q4 results and announced a $150 million buyback plan.

Brinker International, Inc. EAT shares were also up, gaining 13% to $39.38 after the company reported upbeat Q2 earnings.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Dynatrace, Inc. DT shares tumbled 22% to $44.03 after the company reported Q3 earnings results. The non-GAAP operating margin contracted 400 basis points to 25%.

Shares of Electric Last Mile Solutions, Inc. ELMS were down 35% to $3.6594 after the company reported leadership transition and financial update. The company said Executive Chairman Jason Luo has resigned from position as President, CEO and member of Board. Several analysts also downgraded the stock.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL was down, falling 24% to $132.87 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $87.69, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,807.60.

Silver traded up 0.2% Wednesday to $22.64 while copper rose 0.5% to $4.4565.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.57%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.77%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.21%. The German DAX surged 0.08%, French CAC 40 gained 0.34% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.87%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone rose to a new record high of 5.1% in January from 5% in December, while annual inflation rate in Italy rose to 4.8% from 3.9%. French government budget deficit narrowed to EUR 170.7 billion in 2021 from EUR 178.1 billion in the previous year.

The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain increased by 17,173 from a month ago to 3.12 million in January, while number of foreign tourist arrivals jumped 355% year-over-year to 2.95 million in December.

Economics

Private businesses in the US cut 301,000 workers in January, recording the first job loss since December 2020, the ADP said.

US crude-oil inventories dropped 1 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

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Check out the full economic calendar here

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 76,516,200 cases with around 913,920 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 41,630,880 cases and 497,990 deaths, while Brazil reported over 25,625,130 COVID-19 cases with 628,130 deaths. In total, there were at least 382,633,130 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,707,900 deaths.