Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; US Retail Sales Drop In May

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 300 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 1.29% to 30,757.67 while the NASDAQ rose 1.71% to 11,013.08. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.49% to 3,791.08.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 1.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included The Real Brokerage Inc. REAX, up 7% and Offerpad Solutions Inc. OPAD up 4%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 0.5%.

Top Headline

Retail sales in the US dropped 0.3% month-over-month in May, recording the first drop so far this year. Analysts, however, were expecting for a 0.2% rise.

Equities Trading UP

Evoke Pharma, Inc. EVOK shares shot up 55% to $3.17 after the company announced approval of GIMOTI to Florida State Medicaid Program.

Shares of Satellogic Inc. SATL got a boost, shooting 21% to $4.06.

Algoma Steel Group Inc. ASTL shares were also up, gaining 18% to $9.33 after the company reported a rise in Q4 sales results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Belite Bio, Inc BLTE shares tumbled 24% to $21.49.

Shares of Tuya Inc. TUYA were down 21% to $2.32 after reporting downbeat quarterly sales.

Planet Labs PBC PL was down, falling 18% to $4.20 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $118.10, while gold traded up 0.8% to $1,827.10.

Silver traded up 2.7% to $21.525 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.1% to $4.1595.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.2%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.4%. The German DAX climbed 1.5%, French CAC 40 surged 1.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 3.2%.

The European Central Bank announced plans to hold an unscheduled meeting today in order to discuss current market conditions. Annual inflation rate in France accelerated to 5.2% in May from 4.8% in April.

Economics

Retail sales in the US dropped 0.3% month-over-month in May, recording the first drop so far this year. Analysts, however, were expecting for a 0.2% rise.

The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index climbed to -1.2 in June from -11.6 in May.

Import prices in the US rose 0.6% from a month ago in May, while export prices surged by 2.8% from a month earlier.

US business inventories rose 1.2% for April following a 2.0% build in the previous month.

The housing market index fell to 67 for from 69 in the previous month.

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

The Federal Reserve is set to announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET. The Fed is projected to increase its fed funds target range by 50 basis points.

The Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.

The Treasury International Capital report for April will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.

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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 87,549,560 cases with around 1,036,480 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,245,510 cases and 524,790 deaths, while Brazil reported over 31,543,000 COVID-19 cases with 668,400 deaths. In total, there were at least 541,874,280 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,334,500 deaths.