US Stocks Rise; Dow Gains 100 Points

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining over 100 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.32% to 33,349.52 while the NASDAQ rose 0.45% to 10,400.04. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.40% to 3,844.62.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares rose by 0.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included GlycoMimetics, Inc. GLYC, up 12%, and Summit Therapeutics Inc. SMMT, up 10%.

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

Top Headline

US pending home sales dropped 4% month-over-month in November, recording a sixth straight monthly drop.

Equities Trading UP

• Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. KALA shares shot up 117% to $8.49 after the company announced FDA acceptance of a IND application for its KPI-012 for the treatment of persistent corneal epithelial defect.
• Shares of GlycoMimetics, Inc. GLYC got a boost, shooting 15% to $2.5850.
• Cosmos Health Inc. COSM shares were also up, gaining 8% to $4.7723.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. NERV shares tumbled 15% to $1.98. Minerva Neurosciences confirmed that the FDA's refuse letter from October 14, 2022 remains in effect.
• Shares of HUYA Inc. HUYA were down 14% to $3.7285.
• Model Performance Acquisition Corp. MPAC was down, falling 55% to $6.18.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $79.17 while gold traded down 0.5% at $1,813.40.

Silver traded down 0.8% to $24.025 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.1% to $3.8460.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.8% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%. The German DAX fell 0.2%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.1%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 0.41%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.56% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.26%.

Industrial production in Japan declined by 0.1% month-over-month in November versus a 3.2% drop in October.

Economics

• US pending home sales dropped 4% month-over-month in November, recording a sixth straight monthly drop.
• The Richmond Fed manufacturing index edged higher to 1 in December from -9 a month ago, while sector Activity revenues index declined to -12 in December from -2.

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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 102,307,320 cases with around 1,116,360 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,678,760 cases and 530,690 deaths, while France reported over 39,159,750 COVID-19 cases with 161,150 deaths. In total, there were at least 662,976,660 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,689,300 deaths.