Dow Gains 150 Points After Fed Minutes

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, following the release of minutes from the FOMC meeting.

The Dow traded up 0.48% to 33,294.51 while the NASDAQ rose 0.83% to 10,472.89. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.88% to 3,857.96.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares gained by 3.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included WeWork Inc. WE, up 24%, and Industrial Logistics Properties Trust ILPT, up 14%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

The Fed reiterated its previous intentions to do whatever it takes to bring inflation down, but said it may continue to soften its tightening measures, according to the November meeting minutes released Wednesday by the Federal Open Market Committee.

“A number of participants emphasized that it would be important to clearly communicate that a slowing in the pace of rate increases was not an indication of any weakening of the Committee’s resolve to achieve its price-stability goal or a judgment that inflation was already on a persistent downward path,” the Fed said in its minutes.

Equities Trading UP

• Geron Corporation GERN shares shot up 35% to $3.25 after the company announced top-line results from the IMerge Phase 3 trial of imetelstat in lower risk MDS. The trial met the primary 8-week transfusion independence (TI) endpoint and key secondary 24-week TI endpoint.
• Shares of Crown ElectroKinetics Corp. CRKN got a boost, shooting 110% to $0.3936 after the company announced it acquired Amerigen 7.
• Vivos Therapeutics, Inc. VVOS shares were also up, gaining 191% to $2.1520 after the company announced it received FDA 510(k) clearance for its DNA oral appliance for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Vera Therapeutics, Inc. VERA shares tumbled 63% to $6.70 after the company announced topline results of the Phase 2b ORIGIN clinical trial of atacicept for the treatment of IgA nephropathy.
• Shares of Enovix Corporation ENVX were down 45% to $6.61 following a livestream presentation from company management regarding an update on production, commercialization and recent management additions.
• Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PHAT was down, falling 30% to $8.39. The FDA notified Phathom Pharmaceuticals that no action would be taken on the company's new drug application (NDA) for vonoprazan, under review as a treatment for erosive esophagitis, on or before the current Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date of January 11, 2023.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 4% to $73.85 while gold traded up 0.9% at $1,861.70.

Silver traded down 0.3% to $24.165 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.5% to $3.7460.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.38%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.41% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.93%. The German DAX gained 2.18%, French CAC 40 rose 2.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.74%.

The S&P Global Eurozone services PMI rose to 49.8 in December versus a preliminary reading of 49.1. The S&P Global German services PMI rose to 49.2 in December from a preliminary reading of 49, while the S&P Global Spain services PMI increased to 51.6 in December from 51.2 a month ago. French services PMI rose to 49.5 in December from a flash reading of 48.1, while annual inflation rate in France eased to 5.9% in December.

Consumer credit in the UK increased by GBP 1.507 billion in November versus a revised GBP 0.748 billion rise in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 3.22%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index adding 0.22%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.45% during the session.

Retail sales in Hong Kong dipped by 5.3% year-over-year in November versus a revised 2.5% growth in the prior month. The S&P Global India services PMI rose to 58.5 in December from 56.4 in the prior month. Japanese manufacturing PMI rose to 48.9 in December versus the flash reading of 48.8.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US dropped 10.3% in the week ended December 30 2022, recording the biggest decline in three months.
• The number of job openings in the US fell by 54,000 to 10.5 million in November.
• The ISM manufacturing PMI declined for a second straight month to 48.4 in December from 49 in the previous month, and compared to market estimates of 48.5.
• The Federal Reserve released minutes from its recent meeting.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 102,747,550 cases with around 1,118,750 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,680,260 cases and 530,700 deaths, while France reported over 39,356,180 COVID-19 cases with 162,370 deaths. In total, there were at least 666,183,960 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,701,630 deaths.