Crude Oil Down 2%; Alphabet Shares Fall After Q4 Results

U.S. stocks traded mostly lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.08% to 38,497.13 while the NASDAQ fell 1.41% to 15,291.02. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.81% to 4,885.29.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares rose by 1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell by 3.1%.

Top Headline

Shares of Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL fell more than 6% on Wednesday following fourth-quarter results.

Alphabet posted better-than-expected earnings results for its fourth quarter on Tuesday. However, Google’s advertising sales came in short of market estimates.

Alphabet’s fourth-quarter revenue increased 13% year-over-year to $86.31 billion, which beat the consensus estimate of $85.33 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. The company reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.64 per share, which beat analyst estimates of $1.59 per share.

Equities Trading UP

2seventy bio, Inc. TSVT shares shot up 27% to $5.08. Leerink Partners analyst Daina Graybosch upgraded 2seventy bio from Market Perform to Outperform and raised the price target from $5 to $18. 2seventy Bio said it will focus exclusively on commercialization and development of Abecma and sell its R&D pipeline to Regeneron.

Shares of Minim, Inc. MINM got a boost, surging 55% to $3.94. David E. Lazar disclosed a 51% active stake in Minim Inc.

Powell Industries, Inc. POWL shares were also up, gaining 47% to $119.66 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results and raised its quarterly dividend.

Equities Trading DOWN

Nuvve Holding Corp. NVVE shares dropped 66% to $1.14. Nuvve announced pricing of $9.6 million underwritten public offering of 4.8 million shares of common stock at $2.00 per share.

Shares of New York Community Bancorp, Inc. NYCB were down 36% to $6.59 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results and reduced its quarterly dividend.

Genprex, Inc. GNPX was down, falling 29% to $0.1914. Genprex announced a 1-for-40 reverse stock split effective Feb. 2, 2024.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.2% to $76.13 while gold traded up 0.8% at $2,067.40.

Silver traded up 0.2% to $23.28 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.2% to $3.9205.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.14%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.13% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.56% The German DAX fell 0.38% French CAC 40 fell 0.18% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.43%.

Spain reported a current account surplus of EUR 2,765 million in November versus a year-ago surplus of EUR 4,122 million, while retail trade rose by 3.1% year-over-year in December. German jobless rate came in unchanged for a third straight period at 5.8% in January, while German import prices fell 8.5% year-over-year in December.

Producer prices in the French domestic market eased to 0.1% month-over-month in December compared to revised 2.3% increase a month ago, while consumer price inflation slowed to 3.1% year-over-year in January. The Nationwide House Price Index in the UK declined 0.2% year-over-year in January.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.61%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.39% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipping 1.48%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.86%.

Indian fiscal deficit narrowed to INR 9.82 trillion in April-December compared to INR 9.93 trillion in the year-ago period. Hong Kong’s economy grew by 4.3% year-over-year in the fourth quarter versus 4.1% growth in the earlier period.

Japan's housing starts fell by 4.0% year-over-year in December, while consumer confidence index in Japan rose to 38 in January from 37.2 in the prior month. The official NBS non-manufacturing PMI for China rose to 50.7 in January from 50.4 in the previous month, while manufacturing PMI rose to 49.2 in January from December's 6-month low level of 49.0.

Economics

Private businesses in the U.S. added 107,000 workers in January, compared to a revised 158,000 gain in December and versus market estimates of 145,000.

Compensation costs for civilian workers in the U.S. rose by 0.9% during the final quarter of 2023, compared to a 1.1% increase in the prior three-month period.

U.S. crude inventories increased 1.234 million barrels last week, compared to market expectations for a decline of 0.217 million barrels.

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