Dow Rises 50 Points; Quoin Pharmaceuticals Shares Plunge

U.S. stocks traded slightly higher toward the end of trading following the release of Fed minutes.

The Dow traded up 0.15% to 33,180.87 while the NASDAQ rose 0.49% to 11,548.73. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.33% to 4,010.53.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Materials shares rose around 0.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Constellium SE CSTM, up 10%, and Equinox Gold Corp. EQX, up 7%.
• In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 0.5%.

Top Headline

The TJX Companies, Inc. TJX reported better-than-expected sales results for its fourth quarter.

The company posted sales growth of 5% year-on-year to $14.52 billion, beating the consensus of $14.06 billion. EPS of $0.89 was in-line with the consensus estimate.

The company expects FY24 adjusted EPS of $3.29 - $3.41 against the consensus of $3.56.

Equities Trading UP

• Terran Orbital Corporation LLAP shares shot up 78% to $3.0450 after the company announced it was awarded a contract to design, build and deploy 300 satellites for Rivada Space Networks.
• Shares of Berry Corporation BRY got a boost, shooting 15% to $10.14 after reporting better-than-expected Q4 results.
• Fiverr International Ltd. FVRR shares were also up, gaining 19% to $45.13 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings results and issued guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Esports Entertainment Group, Inc. GMBL shares tumbled 36% to $3.7814. Esports Entertainment Group announced a 1-for-100 reverse stock split.
• Shares of Amesite Inc. AMST were down 24% to $3.1288. Amesite announced a 1-for-12 reverse stock split.
• Quoin Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. QNRX was down, falling 44% to $0.6715 after the company announced pricing of a $7 million public offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.9% to $74.17 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,842.20.

Silver traded down 1.2% to $21.62 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.5% to $4.1630.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.33%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.59% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.86%. The German DAX gained 0.01% French CAC 40 fell 0.13% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.12%.

The annual consumer price inflation in Italy declined to 10% in January from 11.6% in the prior month. The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany rose to an eight-month high level of 91.1 in February. Annual inflation rate in Germany increased to 8.7% in January versus a revised 8.1% in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.34%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.51% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropping 0.47%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropped 1.5%.

Hong Kong’s economy contracted 4.2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. Australian wage price index rose by 3.3% year-over-year in Q4.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US dipped 13.3% in the week ended Feb. 17, 2023, versus a 7.7% drop in the prior week.
• The Federal Reserve released minutes of its latest meeting.

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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 105,020,460 cases with around 1,142,980 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,685,250 cases and 530,760 deaths, while France reported over 39,595,960 COVID-19 cases with 164,790 deaths. In total, there were at least 678,954,040 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,792,690 deaths.