US Stocks Open Lower; Dow Drops 125 Points

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 125 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.37% to 33,960.34 while the NASDAQ fell 0.21% to 11,559.87. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.18% to 4,069.44.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Health care shares rose by 0.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Mesoblast Limited MESO, up 11%, and Exscientia plc EXAI, up 8%.
• In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. TMO posted upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter.

Thermo Fisher Scientific reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $5.40 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $5.19 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $11.45 billion, exceeding market expectations of $10.43 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Motorsport Games Inc. MSGM shares shot up 65% to $35.25. Motorsport Games agreed to raise $3.9 million at par via private placement of shares for developing multiple games, working capital and general corporate purposes.
• Shares of Mobile Global Esports Inc. MGAM got a boost, shooting 43% to $3.6800 after jumping 158% on Tuesday. Mobile Global Esports said Nicholas (Nick) Venezia has joined MOGO as Chief Data Officer.
• Edible Garden AG Incorporated EDBL shares were also up, gaining 26% to $13.60.

Equities Trading DOWN

• WestRock Company WRK shares tumbled 15% to $33.33 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 adjusted EPS and sales results. The company also removed FY23 outlook in light of uncertain macroeconomic conditions.
• Shares of Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. HA were down 15% to $10.52 following downbeat Q4 sales.
• Snap Inc. SNAP was down, falling 13% to $10.10 after the company posted a net loss for the fourth quarter and said revenue could drop by as much as 10% for the current quarter.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $78.66 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,943.40.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $23.725 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.7% to $4.1560.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.9%. The German DAX gained 0.4% French CAC 40 rose 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.5%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone dropped to an eight-month low of 8.5% in January, while annual consumer price inflation in Italy declined to 10.4% in January from 11.6% in the prior month. The S&P Global Eurozone manufacturing PMI rose to 48.8 in January from 47.8 in the prior month.

The S&P Global/CIPS manufacturing PMI for UK was revised higher to 47.0 in versus a preliminary reading of 46.7, while French manufacturing PMI was revised lower to 50.5 in January versus a preliminary level of 50.8. Germany’s manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 47.3 in January from a preliminary reading of 47.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.07%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.05% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.90%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.3%.

Hong Kong's economy contracted by 4.2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. The S&P Global Indian manufacturing PMI declined to a three-month low of 55.4 in January. The Caixin China general manufacturing PMI rose to 49.2 in January, while Japanese manufacturing PMI stood at 48.9 in January.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US dropped 9% in the week ended January 27.
• The S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 46.9 in January from a preliminary reading of 46.8.
• Private businesses in the US added 106,000 jobs in January.

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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 104,196,860 cases with around 1,132,930 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,682,780 cases and 530,740 deaths, while France reported over 39,524,310 COVID-19 cases with 164,230 deaths. In total, there were at least 675,217,930 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,762,450 deaths.