Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; General Mills Beats Q4 Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.54% to 25951.64 while the NASDAQ rose 0.41% to 10,097.11. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.38% to 3,112.01.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 2,636,530 cases with around 127,420 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 1,402,040 COVID-19 cases with 59,590 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 653,470 confirmed cases and 9,520 deaths. In total, there were at least 10,498,090 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 511,850 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 1.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pebblebrook Hotel Trust PEB, up 10%, and RLJ Lodging Trust RLJ, up 7%.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares slipped 0.1%.

Top Headline

General Mills, Inc. GIS reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

General Mills posted quarterly earnings of $1.10 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $1.06 per share. The company reported sales of $5.02 billion, exceeding expectations of $4.96 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Qualigen Therapeutics, Inc. QLGN shares shot up 47% to $5.82 after the company announced it has submitted a notification to the FDA to commence the distribution of its FastPack Coronavirus antibody test.

Shares of Akero Therapeutics, Inc. AKRO got a boost, shooting 36% to $33.81 after the company announced positive results from a 16-week analysis of secondary and exploratory endpoints in its Phase 2a BALANCED study of efruxifermin in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

AxoGen, Inc. AXGN shares were also up, gaining 32% to $12.23 after the company reported a new seven-year financing agreement with Oberland Capital and issued preliminary Q2 revenue forecast.

Equities Trading DOWN

Polar Power, Inc. POLA shares tumbled 35% to $3.23.

Shares of Blink Charging Co. BLNK were down 22% to $4.419 after jumping around 42% on Tuesday.

CPS Technologies Corporation CPSH was down, falling 21% to $1.91 after gaining more than 40% on Tuesday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $40.15, while gold traded down 0.3% to $1,794.60.

Silver traded down 0.6% Wednesday to $18.52, while copper fell 0.2% to $2.7245.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.7%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 dropped 0.9%, French CAC 40 fell 0.9% and UK shares fell 0.6%.

Economics

Private-sector employers added 2.37 million jobs during June, according to the Automatic Data Processing Inc. However, economists were expecting an increase of 3.5 million jobs.

The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI rose to 49.8 in June versus a preliminary reading of 49.6.

The ISM manufacturing PMI climbed to 52.6 in June versus 43.1 in May.

U.S. construction spending dropped 2.1% to an annual rate of $1.36 trillion in May.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will release minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.