Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Lowe's Beats Q4 Estimates

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.28% to 31,450.55 while the NASDAQ fell 1.2% to 13,303.70. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.48% to 3,862.91.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 28,261,610 cases with around 502,680 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,030,170 confirmed cases and 156,560 deaths, while Brazil reported over 10,257,870 COVID-19 cases with 248,520 deaths. In total, there were at least 112,184,230 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,487,150 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 2.3% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLXE), up 11%, and Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE:NBR), up 12%.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell by 1.3%.

Top Headline

Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Lowe's reported quarterly earnings of $1.33 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.19 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $20.30 billion, versus expectations of $19.24 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Novo Integrated Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVOS) shares shot up 158% to $9.76 after the company stock was uplisted to the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Shares of Sypris Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SYPR) got a boost, shooting 137% to $6.31 after the company announced it has won a defense contract award for electronic modules for precision-guided anti-ship missile system.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNSS) shares were also up, gaining 43% to $6.13. Sunesis Pharmaceuticals shares gained 20% on Tuesday after Oppenheimer upgraded the stock from Perform to Outperform and announced a price target of $12 per share. The company earlier announced vote approving reverse stock split within range between 3-for-1 and 6-for-1.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

BriaCell Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ:BCTX) shares tumbled 38% to $3.69.

Shares of Entercom Communications Corp. (NYSE:ETM) were down 20% to $4.96 following downbeat quarterly earnings.

Systemax Inc. (NYSE:SYX) was down, falling 13% to $38.48 after the company reported downbeat Q4 earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $61.98, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,806.10.

Silver traded up 0.4% Wednesday to $27.805 while copper fell 0.2% to $4.17.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.42%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.72% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.61%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.21%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.21% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.3%.

French manufacturing climate indicator climbed to 97 in February from a revised reading of 96 in January, while German economy grew 0.3% on quarter during the final three months of 2020.

Economics

US new home sales increased 4.3% to an annual rate of 923,000 in January.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 10:30 a.m.

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The survey of business uncertainty report for February is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida is set to speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will speak again at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here