U.S. stocks traded mixed this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite falling around 100 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.08% to 44,590.52 while the NASDAQ fell 0.55% to 19,545.97. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.17% to 6,027.54.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares surged by 1.1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell by 2.6%.

Top Headline

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.

Walt Disney reported quarterly earnings of $1.76 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.45 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $24.70 billion which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $24.62 billion.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.2% to $71.86 while gold traded up 0.5% at $2,889.50.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $32.880 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.2% to $4.3620.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.2%, Germany's DAX 40 slipped 0.1% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.2%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1.2%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.2%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.09%, China's Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.65%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.93% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.40%.

Economics

• The U.S. trade deficit increased to $98.4 billion in December versus a revised $78.9 billion gap in the previous month and compared to market estimates of a $96.6 billion gap.
• U.S. private businesses added 183,000 workers to their payrolls in January, compared to a revised 176,000 gain in December and above expectations of 150,000.

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