Dow Jumps Over 200 Points; UniFirst Posts Downbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining over 200 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.58% to 39,511.62 while the NASDAQ rose 0.60% to 16,412.89. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.58% to 5,233.65.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 1.1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer discretionary shares rose by just 0.3%.

Top Headline

UniFirst Corporation UNF reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings.

UniFirst posted quarterly earnings of $1.09 per share, missing market estimates of $1.23 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $590.70 million versus expectations of $587.84 million.

UniFirst said it sees FY24 revenue of $2.415 billion to $2.425 billion and earnings of $6.80 to $7.16 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc. LIXT shares shot up 82% to $4.1307 after the company announced the publication of pre-clinical data on its lead clinical compound, LB-100.

Shares of MariaDB plc MRDB got a boost, surging 64% to $0.3675 after Progress Software announced that it is possibly considering an offer for the company.

Destiny Tech100 Inc DXYZ shares were also up, gaining 30% to $11.68 after gaining 9% on Tuesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Gamida Cell Ltd. GMDA shares dropped 82% to $0.0620 after the company reported fourth-quarter results and disclosed the commencement of a restructuring process.

Shares of Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. DRCT were down 48% to $13.76 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.

Velo3D, Inc. VLD was down, falling 38% to $0.3586 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $81.17 while gold traded up 0.8% at $2,194.00.

Silver traded up 0.3% to $24.705 on Wednesday, while copper fell 0.2% to $3.9995.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.5% The German DAX rose 0.4% French CAC 40 rose 0.2% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.1%.

The economic sentiment indicator in the eurozone climbed to a three-month high level of 96.3 in March, while services confidence indicator rose to 6.3 from 6 a month ago. The consumer confidence indicator in the eurozone increased by 0.6 points to a reading of -14.9 in March.

Spain posted a current account surplus of €5,127 million in January, higher than the €2,340 million surplus recorded in year-ago period, while consumer price inflation rate accelerated to 3.2% year-over-year in March. The construction output in Italy surged by 14.8% year-over-year in January, while consumer confidence indicator in France climbed to 91 in March.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.90%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.36%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipping 1.26% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.73%.

Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms jumped by 10.2% year-over-year to CNY 914.06 billion during the first two months of the year.

Economics

U.S. mortgage applications declined by 0.7% on the week ending March 22, 2024.

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