Dow Dips 200 Points; TJX Posts Upbeat Sales

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones index falling around 200 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.52% to 38,770.83 while the NASDAQ fell 0.63% to 15,933.71. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.33% to 5,061.21.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 0.5% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

The TJX Companies, Inc. TJX posted better-than-expected sales for its fourth quarter on Wednesday.

TJX Companies posted GAAP earnings of $1.12 per share, in-line with market estimates. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $16.40 billion, versus expectations of $16.21 billion.

TJX said it sees FY25 earnings of $3.94 to $4.02 per share, versus estimates of $4.11 per share. The company expects consolidated comparable store sales gaining 2% to 3%.

Equities Trading UP

Vivani Medical, Inc. VANI shares shot up 390% to $4.9478 after the company announced preclinical data on weight loss effects for NPM-115 and disclosed that semaglutide is the active pharmaceutical ingredient in NPM-139.

Shares of Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ADIL got a boost, surging 124% to $1.8969. Adial Pharmaceuticals secured new US patent covering lead product for alcohol use disorder.

Bit Brother Limited BETS shares were also up, gaining 63% to $4.0617.

Equities Trading DOWN

Oragenics, Inc. OGEN shares dropped 45% to $1.35. Oragenics priced its public offering 1.4 million common shares at $1.50 per share for gross proceeds of $2.1 million.

Shares of Integral Ad Science Holding Corp. IAS were down 39% to $10.39 after the company reported fourth-quarter financial results.

Palatin Technologies, Inc. PTN was down, falling 36% to $2.55 after the company reported results of PL9643 MELODY-1 pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial in patients with dry eye disease.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $79.53 while gold traded down 0.2% at $2,040.70.

Silver traded fell 0.8% to $22.575 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.7% to $3.8255.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.3% The German DAX gained 0.1% French CAC 40 fell 0.1% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.3%.

The services confidence indicator in the Eurozone fell to 6 in February, the lowest in three months, while economic sentiment indicator fell to 95.4 in February. The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone increased by 0.6 points to a reading of -15.5 in February.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.08%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipping 1.51%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index tumbling 1.91% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex falling 1.08%.

Hong Kong’s GDP increased by 4.3% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, up from a 4.1% increase in the prior period. The index of leading economic indicators in Japan was revised higher to 110.2 in December versus preliminary reading of 110, while index of coincident economic indicators was revised lower to 115.9 in December versus a flash reading of 116.2.

Economics

U.S. mortgage applications fell by 5.6% on the week ending Feb. 23.

The US economy grew an annualized 3.2% in the fourth quarter, versus a 4.9% rate in the previous quarter.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods rose to $90.20 billion in January versus a revised $87.89 billion in the prior month.

U.S. wholesale inventories declined by 0.1% month-over-month in January following a 0.4% increase a month ago.

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