US Stocks Open Lower; Dow Drops 250 Points

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning as investors focused on the outcome of the midterm elections, with the Dow Jones dropping around 250 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.76% to 32,907.76 while the NASDAQ fell 1.04% to 10,505.93. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.79% to 3,797.68.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares gained 0.2% on Wednesday. Leading the sector was strength from Health Catalyst, Inc. HCAT and Outset Medical, Inc. OM.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares dipped by 2%.

Top Headline

D.R. Horton, Inc. DHI reported weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

D.R. Horton posted quarterly earnings of $4.67 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $5.09 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $9.64 billion, versus expectations of $9.97 billion.

D R Horton said it sees consolidated revenues For Q1 of $6 billion to $6.8 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MACK shares shot up 207% to $12.27 after partner Ipsen reported Onivyde met its primary and key secondary endpoint. Merrimack is eligible for up to $450 million in milestone payments for the pancreatic cancer treatment.
• Shares of Outset Medical, Inc. OM got a boost, shooting 40% to $16.05 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 results.
• Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. KALA shares were also up, gaining 39% to $7.28. On Tuesday, Kala Pharmaceuticals said it swung to a profit for the third quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Telos Corporation TLS shares tumbled 53% to $5.19 after the company reported downbeat Q3 earnings and lowered FY22 sales guidance.
• Shares of Golden Sun Education Group Limited GSUN were down 50% to $6.15.
• Amyris, Inc. AMRS was down, falling 36% to $1.6493 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 results.

Also check out: Investor Optimism Improves Further Ahead Of US Midterm Elections

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.8% to $87.27 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,715.60.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $21.475 on Wednesday while copper rose 1% to $3.7190.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.4%. The German DAX dropped 0.5%, French CAC 40 fell 0.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.3%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Wednesday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 0.56% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 1.2%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.53%.

Japanese current account surplus dropped to JPY 909.3 billion in September from JPY 1,653.2 billion in the same month a year ago. Chinese producer prices declined 1.3% year-over-year in October, while annual inflation fell to 2.1% year-over-year during the month. Private house approvals in Australia declined 7.8% month-over-month to 9,628 units during September, while building permits dropped 5.8% to 16,455 units.

Economics

Wholesale inventories in the US rose by 0.6% from a month ago to $918.5 billion in September.

Check out this: Volatility In Markets Increases Amid US Midterm Elections

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 99,697,920 cases with around 1,098,520 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,662,950 cases and 530,510 deaths, while France reported over 37,012,310 COVID-19 cases with 157,540 deaths. In total, there were at least 638,580,760 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,608,370 deaths.