U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones index falling around 0.2%% on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.19% to 42,449.51 while the NASDAQ dipped 0.26% to 19,439.95. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.17% to 5,898.88.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares jumped by 0.1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, health care shares fell by 0.7%.

Top Headline

Acuity Brands, Inc (NYSE:AYI) reported weaker-than-expected revenue for its fiscal first quarter.

The company posted net sales growth of 1.8% year over year to $951.6 million, missing the analyst consensus estimate of $956.2 million. It clocked an adjusted EPS of $3.97, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $3.89.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Sana Biotechnology, Inc (NASDAQ:SANA) shares shot up 282% to $6.30 after the company on Tuesday announced clinical trial results from its type 1 diabetes study of islet cell transplantation without immunosuppression.
• Shares of Silo Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:SILO)got a boost, surging 170% to $2.9500 after the company announced it was awarded a US patent for its PTSD treatment titled ‘Pharmacological Prophylactics Against Stress-Induced Affective Disorders in Females.’
• CURRENC Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CURR) shares were also up, gaining 146% to $3.42 after the company announced the launch of its AI call center.

Equities Trading DOWN

• DatChat, Inc. (NASDAQ:DATS) shares dropped 64% to $3.2583 after the company announced the pricing of a $5.1 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules.
• Shares of Jasper Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ:JSPR) were down 54% to $8.22. The company reported preliminary data from its BEACON Phase 1b/2a study.
• XTI Aerospace, Inc. (NASDAQ:XTIA) was down, falling 51% to $0.0555. XTI Aerospace priced $20 million offering of 363,636,364 shares of common stock at a price of $0.055 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3% to $74.45 while gold traded up 0.7% at $2,683.30.

Silver traded up 1.1% to $31.02 on Wednesday, while copper rose 1% to $4.2360.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 0.6%, Germany's DAX 40 fell 0.3% and France's CAC 40 dipped 1%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.6%, while London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.4%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.26%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.02%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declining 0.86% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.07%.

Economics

• U.S. private businesses added 122,000 workers to their payrolls in December down from 146,000 in November and versus expectations of 140,000.
• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 201,000 in the week ending Jan. 4, recording the lowest level in eleven months and versus market estimates of 218,000.

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