Nasdaq Drops 200 Points; Meta Platforms Shares Jump

U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading , with the Nasdaq Composite dropping 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 1.44% to 32,684.65 while the NASDAQ fell 1.89% to 10,416.00. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.45% to 3,772.62.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares gained 0.7% on Wednesday. Leading the sector was strength from Forestar Group Inc. FOR and Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. ASPS.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares dipped by 2.8%.

Top Headline

Meta Platforms Inc META shares climbed more than 7% on Wednesday after the company confirmed details surrounding layoffs in a letter to employees.

According to a new SEC filing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter to employees explaining why he plans to lay off more than 11,000 employees, reducing the size of the Meta team by about 13%.

Equities Trading UP

• Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MACK shares shot up 196% to $11.84 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 35% to $15.50 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 results.
• OptimizeRx Corporation OPRX shares were also up, gaining 30% to $18.83 after reporting upbeat Q3 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Telos Corporation TLS shares tumbled 67% to $3.6084 after the company reported downbeat Q3 earnings and lowered FY22 sales guidance.
• Shares of Clovis Oncology, Inc. CLVS were down 74% to $0.2594 after the company warned of a possible bankruptcy amid liquidity concerns. The company also reported Q3 earnings results.
• Athersys, Inc. ATHX was down, falling 55% to $0.5781 after the company announced pricing of a $5.5 million public offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.7% to $86.46 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,714.80.

Silver traded down 0.7% to $21.36 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.1% to $3.6810.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.30%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.14% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.52%. The German DAX dropped 0.16%, French CAC 40 fell 0.17% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.36%.

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.
• US crude oil inventories increased by 3.925 million barrels in the week ended November 4th, versus market estimates of a 1.360-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.

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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 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.