Gold Moves Higher; Outlook Therapeutics Shares Plummet

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.14% to 34,900.33 while the NASDAQ rose 0.69% to 14,040.27. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.44% to 4,517.52.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 0.5% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell by 0.5%.

Top Headline

Private businesses in the U.S. added 177,000 workers in August, missing market estimates of a 195,000 rise and compared to a revised 371,000 gain in July.

Equities Trading UP

NanoVibronix, Inc. NAOV shares shot up 156% to $3.7597 after the company reported outcomes from a UroShield study conducted at the University of Southampton in the U.K.

Shares of Tingo Group, Inc. TIO got a boost, shooting 39% to $1.1850. Tingo Group announced completion of investigation into allegations made against the company in short-seller report and issued its response.

Conn's, Inc. CONN shares were also up, gaining 27% to $4.3909 as the company posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss.

Equities Trading DOWN

Outlook Therapeutics, Inc. OTLK shares dropped 84% to $0.2237 after the company received an FDA complete response letter regarding ONS-5010, an investigational ophthalmic formulation of bevacizumab under development to treat Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Wet AMD).

Shares of Ambarella, Inc. AMBA were down 17% to $62.87 after the company issued third-quarter revenue guidance below estimates.

FibroGen, Inc. FGEN was down, falling 28% to $0.9210. FibroGen announced topline data from the Phase 3 LELANTOS-2 trial of pamrevlumab for ambulatory patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) on background systemic corticosteroids.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $81.08 while gold traded up 0.5% at $1,974.60.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $24.82 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.3% to $3.8485.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.14% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.15% The German DAX fell 0.32% French CAC 40 fell 0.12%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.13%.

The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone fell to -16 in August from -15.1 in July, while economic sentiment indicator fell for the fourth straight month to 93.3 in August.

The German consumer price inflation rate fell to 6.1% year-over-year in August from 6.2% in the prior month. Spain’s industry confidence indicator climbed by 2.8 points from the previous month to -6.6 in August. Industrial sales in Italy increased by 0.4% from the prior month in June, while consumer confidence in Italy fell to 106.5 in August from 106.7 in July.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.33%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbing 0.04% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.01%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.02%.

The consumer confidence index in Japan fell to 36.2 in August from of 37.1 in July.

Economics

The U.S. economy expanded at an annualized pace of 2.1% in the second quarter of 2023, versus the preliminary reading of 2.4% and compared to the first quarter's growth of 2.0%.

Private businesses in the U.S. added 177,000 workers in August, missing market estimates of a 195,000 rise and compared to a revised 371,000 gain in July.

The US trade deficit in goods widened to $91.2 billion in July versus a revised $88.8 billion in the prior month.

Wholesale inventories in the U.S. fell by 0.1% month-over-month in July.

Corporate profits in the U.S. climbed by 1.6% from the prior quarter to $2.367 trillion in the second quarter.

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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 107,992,780 cases with around 1,173,420 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,997,030 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 694,499,240 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,910,960 deaths.