Dow Gains 150 Points; General Mills Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 150 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded up 0.47% to 34,680.84 while the NASDAQ rose 0.26% to 13,713.13. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.37% to 4,460.20.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 0.9% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

General Mills Inc GIS reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

The company reported first-quarter FY24 sales growth of 4% year-on-year to $4.90 billion, beating the analyst consensus of $4.88 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.09 topped the consensus of $1.08.

General Mills reaffirmed FY24 organic sales growth outlook of 3% - 4%. The company sees FY24 adjusted EPS to grow 4% - 6% in constant currency.

Equities Trading UP

MSP Recovery, Inc. LIFW shares shot up 108% to $0.1951.

Shares of Bluejay Diagnostics, Inc. BJDX got a boost, shooting 61% to $5.00. Bluejay Diagnostics, last month, announced a $1.59 million registered direct offering of 216,000 shares at $7.365 per share.

Fresh Tracks Therapeutics, Inc. FRTX shares were also up, gaining 49% to $0.8670 after the company announced its Board of Directors has approved a plan of liquidation and dissolution.

Equities Trading DOWN

Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. SEEL shares dropped 74% to $0.2599 after the company announced its SLS-002 Phase II study did not meet the pre-defined primary endpoint due to limited sample size.

Shares of ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SPRY were down 58% to $2.8050. The FDA issued a Complete Response Letter regarding ARS Pharmaceuticals’ New Drug Application (NDA) for neffy (epinephrine nasal spray) in the treatment of Allergic Reactions (Type I), including anaphylaxis (fatal allergic reaction) for adults and children ≥30 kg.

Molekule Group, Inc. MKUL was down, falling 38% to $0.4577. Molekule Group said board authorized the company’s management to commence preparation of voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $90.42 while gold traded up 0.4% at $1,961.90.

Silver traded up 0.9% to $23.655 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.8% to $3.7765.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.4% The German DAX gained 0.9% French CAC 40 rose 0.9%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.7%.

Construction output in the Eurozone increased by 1.0% year-over-year in July versus a 0.8% decline in the prior month. Passenger car registrations in the European Union climbed 21.0% year-over-year to 787.6 thousand units in August. Producer prices in Germany fell by 12.6% year-over-year in August.

UK’s producer prices fell by 0.4% year-over-year in August versus a revised 0.7% decline in July, while consumer price inflation in the UK fell to 6.7% in August from 6.8% a month ago.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.66%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.62% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.52%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, declined 1.18%.

The People's Bank of China held its lending rates at the September fixing. Japanese trade deficit fell to JPY 930.5 billion in August from JPY 2,790.4 billion in the year-ago month.

Economics

Mortgage applications in the U.S. surged 5.4% in the week ending Sept. 15, recording the first increase in three weeks.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its interest-rate decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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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 108,490,720 cases with around 1,175,390 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,998,240 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 695,538,090 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,918,070 deaths.