Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; JPMorgan Beats Q1 Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.52% to 33,851.44 while the NASDAQ rose 0.13% to 14,013.92. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.14% to 4,147.29.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 31,346,920 cases with around 563,440 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 13,873,820 cases and 172,080 deaths, while Brazil reported over 13,599,990 COVID-19 cases with 358,420 deaths. In total, there were at least 137,515,910 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 2,961,460 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 2.3% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included DMC Global Inc. BOOM, up 9%, and FLEX LNG Ltd. FLNG, up 8%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

JPMorgan reported quarterly earnings of $4.50 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $3.10 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $33.1 billion, versus expectations of $30.52 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Discovery, Inc. DISCB shares shot up 54% to $115.65.

Shares of Galectin Therapeutics Inc. GALT got a boost, shooting 19% to $2.585 after the company announced that a paper in the peer-reviewed Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC) published data from an ongoing Phase 1 trial evaluating Galectin's belapectin in head & neck cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma.

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. TV shares were also up, gaining 23% to $12.47 after the company reached an agreement with Univision to sell its content and media assets in a deal valued at $4.8 billion. Televisa will receive $3 billion in cash and $1.5 billion in Univision equity.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

LifeMD, Inc. LFMD shares tumbled 19% to $9.55 following recent tweets from short seller, Culper Research, including 'We're short LifeMD, Inc. $LFMD...'

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY were down 14% to $23.93 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results. The company also reaffirmed its FY21 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Intrusion Inc. INTZ was down, falling 14% to $24.32 following earlier short report from White Diamond Research 'Why A Cybersecurity Expert Calls Intrusion And Its New Shield Product "Garbage" As Insiders Liquidate Holdings.'

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $61.16, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,744.80.

Silver traded down 0.1% Wednesday to $25.42 while copper rose 1.3% to $4.0830.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.1% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.1%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.3% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.2%.

Industrial production in the Eurozone fell 1.0% in February, versus a 0.8% rise in January. Labor productivity in the UK dropped 4.3% on quarter during October-December 2020, versus a preliminary estimate of a 4.5% decline.

Economics

Import prices in the US rose 1.2% in March following a 1.3% increase in February. Prices for US exports climbed 2.1% in March after rising 1.6% a month ago.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will release its recent Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams is set to speak at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will speak at 3:45 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:05 a.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here