US Stocks Open Higher; Costco Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 50 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.14% to 33,664.90 while the NASDAQ rose 0.48% to 13,125.81. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.36% to 4,288.74.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 1.4% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

Costco Wholesale Corporation COST reported better-than-expected earnings and sales results for its fourth quarter on Tuesday.

Total revenues came in at $78.939 billion, which beat the consensus estimate of $77.9 billion. The retailer reported quarterly earnings of $4.86 per share, which beat analyst estimates of $4.79 per share.

Equities Trading UP

ShiftPixy, Inc. PIXY shares shot up 207% to $1.33. The company announced the effective date for its reverse stock split after the close. Shareholders voted to approve a reverse split on Aug. 21. After the closing bell on Tuesday, ShiftPixy said the one-for-twenty-four reverse split will take effect on Sept. 30.

Shares of SciSparc Ltd. SPRC got a boost, shooting 55% to $0.24. The company reported its previously announced 1-for-26 reverse share split is expected to be implemented after market close today.

Biohaven Ltd. BHVN shares were also up, gaining 42% to $24.99.

Equities Trading DOWN

mCloud Technologies Corp. MCLD shares dropped 50% to $0.1439 after the company said it would not meet the listing requirements of the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC.

Shares of Sharps Technology, Inc. STSS were down 32% to $0.56 after the company reported a $5.6 million registered direct and private placement priced at the market under Nasdaq rules.

Know Labs, Inc. KNW was down, falling 32% to $0.24 after the company announced pricing of a $7 million public offering of common stock.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.8% to $92.01 while gold traded down 0.6% at $1,909.20.

Silver traded down 1.3% to $22.89 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.2% to $3.6410.

Euro zone

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

Bank lending to households in the Eurozone increased by 1% year-over-year for the month of August. The consumer confidence in France declined to 83 in September from 85 in August, while Germany’s GfK Consumer Climate Indicator fell to -26.5 heading into October compared to a revised reading of -25.6 in September.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.18%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 0.83% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.16%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.3%.

The index of leading economic indicators in Japan was revised higher to 108.2 in July versus a preliminary reading of 107.6, while index of coincident economic indicators was revised lower to 114.2 in July compared to a flash reading of 114.5. Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms dipped by 11.7% year-over-year to CNY 4,655.82 billion during the first eight months of the year.

Economics

Mortgage applications in the U.S. fell 1.3% in the week ending Sept. 22, 2023, versus a 5.4% increase in the prior week.

U.S. durable goods orders increased 0.2% month-over-month in August versus a revised 5.6% decline in July, and beating market expectations for a 0.5% fall.

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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 108,622,500 cases with around 1,176,310 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,998,600 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 695,817,420 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,920,330 deaths.