Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Procter & Gamble Tops Q2 Estimates

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.07 percent to 24,664.81 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.73 percent to 7,071.28. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.65 percent to 2,649.89.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the consumer staples shares climbed 1.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Procter & Gamble Co PG up 6 percent, and Standard Diversified Inc SDI up 4 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 0.1 percent.

Top Headline

Procter & Gamble Co PG reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and raised its sales forecast for the full year.

Procter & Gamble posted quarterly earnings of $1.25 per share on revenue of $17.438 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.21 per share on revenue of $17.14 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Auris Medical Holding AG EARS shares got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $0.45 after the company announced publication of data showing promotion of memory restoration in mice.

Shares of Sharps Compliance Corp. SMED shot up 14 percent to $3.66 after the company reported upbeat Q2 earnings.

Synchrony Financial SYF shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $29.48 after the company reported better than expected Q4 EPS and revenue results. Walmart also dismissed its lawsuit against the Synchrony.

Equities Trading DOWN

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RNN shares dropped 43 percent to $0.58. Rexahn priced its 10.75 million unit offering at $0.80 per share.

Shares of Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. BLPH were down 24 percent to $0.6735 after the company priced a 10 million share common stock offering at $0.70 per share.

Avalon GloboCare Corp. AVCO was down, falling around 30 percent to $8.76 after climbing 124.11 percent on Tuesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.47 percent to $53.26 while gold traded down 0.22 percent to $1,286.60.

Silver traded up 0.07 percent Wednesday to $15.335, while copper rose 0.19 percent to $2.6645.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.37 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 1.04 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.34 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.23 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.41 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.3 percent.

Economics

The MBA's index of mortgage application activity declined 2.7 percent in the week ended January 18, 2019.

The FHFA house price index rose 0.4 percent month-over-month in November.

The Richmond Fed manufacturing index rose to -2.00 for January, versus prior reading of -8.00. However, economists were expecting a reading of -6.00.