Mid-Morning Market Update: U.S. Stocks Open Higher; Lowe's Tops Q4 Expectations

U.S. stocks opened higher this morning after recording sharp losses on Tuesday. US President Biden late Tuesday announced sanctions on some Russian banks and individuals.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.35% to 33,713.48 while the NASDAQ rose 0.41% to 13,436.52. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.44% to 4,323.73.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 1.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Renewable Energy Group, Inc. REGI, up 24% and Vertex Energy, Inc. VTNR up 8%.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and raised its guidance.

Lowe's Companies posted quarterly earnings of $1.78 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.70 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $21.34 billion, versus expectations of $20.87 billion.

Lowe's raised its FY22 EPS guidance from $12.25-$13.00 to $13.10-$13.60. The company also boosted its sales guidance from $94 billion-$97 billion to $97 billion -$99 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Tenneco Inc. TEN shares shot up 94% to $19.39 after the company announced it will be acquired by Apollo Funds. Tenneco also reported a Q4 loss of $0.11 per share.

Shares of Overstock.com, Inc. OSTK got a boost, shooting 34% to $48.90 after the company reported Q4 earnings results. Overstock's tZERO ATS said it successfully launched support for clearing and settlement securities transactions for itself and its broker-dealer affiliates.

The Beauty Health Company SKIN shares were also up, gaining 29% to $16.58 after the company reported Q4 results and issued FY22 net sales guidance above estimates.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Kodiak Sciences Inc. KOD shares tumbled 79% to $10.81 as the company announced negative top-line results from its Phase 2b/3 clinical trial evaluating the KSI-301 in treatment-naïve subjects with neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Shares of Vertiv Holdings Co VRT were down 39% to $11.95 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results and issued Q1 guidance below estimates. Vertical Research also downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold.

Kaltura, Inc. KLTR was down, falling 35% to $1.9990 after the company reported weak quarterly sales and issued FY22 forecast.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.2% to $91.24, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,896.90.

Silver traded down 0.8% Wednesday to $24.12 while copper rose 0.4% to $4.53.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.8%. The German DAX surged 0.9%, French CAC 40 jumped 1.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.8%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone was confirmed at a record level of 5.1% for January. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator for Germany dropped to -8.1 heading into March, compared to -6.7 in February. The manufacturing climate indicator in France slipped to 112 in February from a four-year high level of 113 in the previous month.

Economics

The Treasury is set to auction 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 80,270,560 cases with around 963,370 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,867,030 cases and 512,650 deaths, while Brazil reported over 28,351,870 COVID-19 cases with 645,530 deaths. In total, there were at least 428,655,310 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,927,780 deaths.