Dow Jumps 100 Points; Fed Raises Interest Rates By 0.25%

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced interest-rate decision.

The Dow traded up 0.29% to 35,541.39 while the NASDAQ fell 0.17% to 14,120.85. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.01% to 4,567.07.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares climbed by 2.6% on Wednesday.
• In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell by 1.7%.

Top Headline

The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 0.25% to 5.25%-5.5% as widely anticipated Wednesday, pushing borrowing costs to their highest level since February 2001.

Equities Trading UP

• Silicon Motion Technology Corporation SIMO shares shot up 78% to $93.03 following a report of Chinese regulatory approval of the company's merger with MaxLinear, Inc. MXL.
• Shares of ABVC BioPharma, Inc. ABVC got a boost, shooting 37% to $5.22 after the company signed a term sheet to advance a partnership with Zhonghui United Technology, contemplating a planned acquisition of real estate assets via an equity transfer, estimated at $7.4 million.
• Vicor Corporation VICR shares were also up, gaining 53% to $90.84 after the company posted better-than-expected second-quarter results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Dunxin Financial Holdings Limited DXF shares dropped 45% to $1.02 after the company reported pricing of $1.09 million registered direct offering.
• Shares of Snap Inc. SNAP were down 19% to $10.10 after the company reported third-quarter results.
• Euronet Worldwide, Inc. EEFT was down, falling 20% to $93.29 following weak sales for the third quarter.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $79.19 while gold traded up 0.4% at $1,971.40.

Silver traded up 0.8% to $25.02 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.4% to $3.8995.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.53%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.19% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.85% The German DAX fell 0.49% French CAC 40 fell 1.35% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.05%.

Bank lending to households in the Eurozone rose by 1.7% year-over-year to EUR 6.87 trillion in June. France's consumer confidence indicator came in unchanged at 85 in July versus the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.04%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.26% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.36%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.5%.

The index of coincident economic indicators in Japan was revised higher to 114.3 in May versus a flash reading of 113.8, while index of leading economic indicators fell to 109.2 in May from a preliminary reading of 109.5. Australian inflation rate fell to 6.0% year-over-year in the second quarter from 7.0% in the prior period.

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the U.S. fell 1.8% in the week ended July 21, recording the first decline in three weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
• Building permits in the U.S. fell by 3.7% to an annual rate of 1.441 million in June.
• Sales of new single-family houses in the U.S. fell 2.5% to an annualized rate of 697,000 in June.
• U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 0.600 million barrels in the week ended July 21, compared to market expectations for a 2.348 million barrel decline, the EIA said.
• The U.S. Federal Reserve raised federal funds rate by 0.25%.

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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 107,481,820 cases with around 1,169,680 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,995,310 cases and 531,910 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 692,146,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,902,810 deaths.