U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling over 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.79% to 54,514.16 while the NASDAQ fell 0.44% to 26,467.77. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.07% to 7,731.26.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares jumped by 2% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, energy stocks fell by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY) shares gained over 5% on Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results.

Eli Lilly reported quarterly earnings of $8.38 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $6.01 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $22.974 billion which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $20.725 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $75.46 while gold traded up 2.5% at $4,254.50.

Silver traded up 3.5% to $62.355 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.5% to $6.6770.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2% London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.2%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.2%, while France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.01%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 3.66%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rising 0.24%, China’s Shanghai Composite rising 1.47% and India’s BSE Sensex rising 0.19%.

Economics

• U.S. private businesses added 44,000 jobs in July, compared to a revised 95,000 gain in the previous month and down from market estimates of 70,000.
• The S&P Global composite PMI surged to 54.5 in July from 51.9 in the previous month, exceeding the preliminary reading of 53.6.
• The ISM services PMI rose to 54.1 in July from 54 in June and down from market estimates of 54.5.

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