Nasdaq Rises 80 Points; Crude Oil Moves Lower

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 80 points on Wednesday

The Dow traded up 0.01% to 31,795.50 while the NASDAQ rose 0.68% to 11,963.99. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.31% to 3,998.70.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 1.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. EGLX, up 11% and Snap Inc. SNAP up 10%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares tumbled by 2.2%.

Top Headline

US private businesses hired 132,000 workers in August compared to 268,000 in July, the ADP said. It is the smallest addition since the beginning of 2021.

Equities Trading UP

Mobilicom Limited MOB shares shot up 32% to $3.2210. Mobilicom recently reported closing of initial public offering.

Shares of Hour Loop, Inc. HOUR got a boost, shooting 30% to $4.9250 after jumping 15% on Tuesday. Hour Loop recently posted a Q2 loss of $0.01 per share.

ZeroFox Holdings, Inc. ZFOX shares were also up, gaining 18% to $6.42.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY shares tumbled 25% to $9.13 after the company issued Q2 sales guidance below analyst estimates and guided a Q2 comparable sales decline of approximately 26%. The company also announced cost optimization plans, which include job cuts and a discontinuation of three of its nine labels. Additionally, the company filed for a stock shelf offering.

Shares of Mobile Global Esports Inc. MGAM were down 17% to $4.42 after jumping 104% on Tuesday.

Ambarella, Inc. AMBA was down, falling 17% to $69.83 after the company reported Q2 earnings results and issued guidance. Summit Insights Group downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.7% to $90.08, while gold traded down 0.5% at $1,728.00.

Silver traded down 1.7% to $17.975 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.5% to $3.4975.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.2%. The German DAX gained 0.1%, French CAC 40 fell 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.2%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone increased to 9.1% in August from 8.9% in the previous month, while annual inflation rate in Italy accelerated to 8.4% from 7.9%.

The French economy grew 0.5% on quarter in the second quarter compared to a 0.2% drop in the previous quarter, while annual inflation rate in the country fell to 5.8% in August from 6.1% in the earlier month. Import prices in Germany rose by 28.9% year-over-year in July.

Economics

US private businesses hired 132,000 workers in August compared to 268,000 in July, the ADP said. It is the smallest addition since the beginning of 2021.

The Chicago PMI rose slightly to 52.2 in August from 52.1 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.

Data on farm prices for July will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 6:30 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 96,149,010 cases with around 1,069,740 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,429,250 cases and 527,870 deaths, while France reported over 34,509,960 COVID-19 cases with 154,030 deaths. In total, there were at least 607,452,440 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,492,730 deaths.