Nasdaq Rises 1%; US Manufacturing PMI Falls In August

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

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.32% to 34,397.25 while the NASDAQ rose 1.07% to 13,649.99. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.68% to 4,417.57.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 1.8% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

The S&P Global US manufacturing PMI declined to 47 in August from 49 in July, while services PMI slipped to 51 in August from 52.3 a month ago.

Equities Trading UP

VCI Global Limited VCIG shares shot up 94% to $7.27 after the company announced a collaboration with Microsoft Azure OpenAI.

Shares of AgileThought, Inc. AGIL got a boost, shooting 72% to $0.3650. AgileThought recently posted a loss for the second quarter.

iTeos Therapeutics, Inc. ITOS shares were also up, gaining 49% to $17.54 following release of Roche NSCLC data.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bruush Oral Care Inc. BRSH shares dropped 46% to $1.88. Brüush Oral Care recently reported a 1-for-25 reverse stock split.

Shares of Foot Locker, Inc. FL were down 34% to $15.27 after the company reported a second-quarter revenue miss and an 11% rise in inventories. The company also lowered its gross margin guidance, citing more aggressive markdowns.

Tivic Health Systems, Inc. TIVC was down, falling 26% to $2.92 after the company announced a 1-for-100 reverse stock split.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.1% to $77.96 while gold traded up 1% at $1,945.10.

Silver traded up 3.5% to $24.28 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.7% to $3.7825.

Euro zone

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

The HCOB Eurozone services PMI declined to 48.3 in August from 50.9 in July, while manufacturing PMI rose to 43.7 in August from 42.7 in the prior month. The HCOB Germany Composite PMI fell to 44.7 in August from 48.5 in July, while French composite PMI stood at 46.6 for August.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI declined to 42.5 in August from 45.3 in the prior month, while services PMI fell to 48.7 from 51.5.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising 0.48%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 1.34% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.31%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.33%.

The au Jibun Bank Japan services PMI rose to a three-month high level of 54.3 in August, while manufacturing PMI increased to 49.7 in August from 49.6 in July.

Economics

The S&P Global US manufacturing PMI declined to 47 in August from 49 in July, while services PMI slipped to 51 in August from 52.3 a month ago. US composite PMI fell to 50.4 in August.

Building permits in the U.S. rose by 0.1% to an annual rate of 1.443 million in July.

Mortgage applications in the U.S. declined 4.2% in the week ending Aug. 18, 2023.

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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 107,866,900 cases with around 1,172,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,996,670 cases and 531,920 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 694,057,650 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,909,700 deaths.