Dow Drops 100 Points; General Mills Posts Downbeat Sales

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 100 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.30% to 33,823.27 while the NASDAQ fell 0.22% to 13,525.21. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.31% to 4,364.76.

Check This Out: Top 4 Materials Stocks That Could Sink Your Portfolio In June

Top Headline

General Mills Inc GIS reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, while sales missed estimates.

General Mills reported fourth-quarter FY23 sales growth of 3% year-on-year to $5.03 billion, missing the analyst consensus of $5.17 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.12 topped the consensus of $1.07.

General Mills sees FY24 Organic net sales growth of 3% - 4%. The company sees FY24 adjusted EPS to grow 4% - 6% in constant currency from the base of $4.30 earned in fiscal 2023.

Equities Trading UP

• Kaleyra, Inc. KLR shares shot up 39% to $6.65 after Tata Communications Limited announced it has entered an agreement to acquire the company.
• Shares of Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. NERV got a boost, shooting 30% to $7.82. Minerva Neurosciences announced $20 million in private placement priced at a premium to market.
• Baosheng Media Group Holdings Limited BAOS shares were also up, gaining 28% to $9.50.

Equities Trading DOWN

• AST SpaceMobile, Inc. ASTS shares dropped 27% to $4.6750 after the company announced pricing of an upsized offering of Class A common stock.
• Shares of NovaGold Resources Inc. NG were down 12% to $4.0150 after the company announced second-quarter results.
• Cognition Therapeutics, Inc. CGTX was down, falling 10% to $2.25 after the company reported topline results from its Phase 2 SEQUEL study of Ct1812 in 16 adults with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Also Check This Out: General Mills Likely To Report Lower Q4 Earnings; Here's A Look At Recent Price Target Changes By The Most Accurate Analysts

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $67.72 while gold traded down 0.4% at $1,915.60.

Silver traded down 1.2% to $22.695 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.2% to $3.7440.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.8% The German DAX gained 0.8% French CAC 40 rose 0.8% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.5%.

Bank lending to households in the Eurozone rose by 2.1% year-over-year to EUR 6.87 trillion in May. German GfK Consumer Climate Indicator fell to a reading of -25.4 heading into July versus a revised level of -24.4 in the earlier month.

Industrial producer prices in Italy dropped by 4.3% year-over-year in May, while annual inflation rate in Italy eased to 6.4% in June, the lowest in fourteen months. Retail sales in Spain climbed by 6% year-over-year in May, while consumer confidence indicator in France rose to 85 in June from 83 in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumping 2.02%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.12%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index slipping 0.01%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex jumped 1.6%.

Profits earned by China's industrial firms dipped by 18.8% year-over-year to CNY 2,668.89 billion during the first five months of the year.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the U.S. increased 3% in the week ended June 23, 2023.
• The U.S. trade deficit in goods shrank to $91.1 billion in May versus a revised $97.1 billion in the prior month.
• Wholesale inventories fell 0.1% month-over-month in May versus a 0.3% decline in April.

Now Read This: Kellogg To Rally Around 27%? Here Are 10 Other Analyst Forecasts For Tuesday

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 107,298,300 cases with around 1,168,040 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,994,030 cases and 531,900 deaths, while France reported over 40,135,200 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 690,892,530 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,895,110 deaths.