Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Rises 200 Points; 180 Life Sciences Shares Plummet

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.62% to 30,552.24 while the NASDAQ rose 1.96% to 11,040.30. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.10% to 3,776.65.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Carvana Co. CVNA, up 14% and Tupperware Brands Corporation TUP up 13%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 0.9%.

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 53% to $3.14 after the company announced approval of GIMOTI to Florida State Medicaid Program.

Shares of Sidus Space, Inc. SIDU got a boost, shooting 83% to $2.6289 after the company announced it is part of Collins Aerospace team which was awarded NASA's Exploration Extravehicular Activity services contract with a potential value of $3.5 billion.

Kintara Therapeutics, Inc. KTRA shares were also up, gaining 19% to $0.2216 after the FDA granted Fast Track Designation to the company's VAL-083.

Equities Trading DOWN

180 Life Sciences Corp. ATNF shares tumbled 35% to $0.8650. 180 Life Sciences received a written response from the U.K.'s regulatory agency and U.S. FDA related to questions submitted in a Type C meeting request for anti-TNF treatment, adalimumab, to treat early-stage Dupuytren's disease.

Shares of Tuya Inc. TUYA were down 20% to $2.3550 after reporting downbeat quarterly sales.

Planet Labs PBC PL was down, falling 17% to $4.25 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $117.67, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,821.90.

Silver traded up 2.4% to $21.46 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.1% to $4.1615.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.46%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 1.29% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.49%. The German DAX climbed 1.4%, French CAC 40 surged 1.42% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 2.91%.

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.

US crude oil inventories climbed by 1.956 million barrels in the week ended June 10th, following a 2.025 million rise in the prior period, the Energy Information Administration’s said.

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.