Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.43% to 33,839.68 while the NASDAQ rose 0.10% to 14,104.41. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.19% to 4,194.68.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,176,050 cases with around 573,380 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 17,997,110 cases and 201,180 deaths, while Brazil reported over 14,441,560 COVID-19 cases with 395,020 deaths. In total, there were at least 148,763,560 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,136,870 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Communication services shares climbed by 2.3% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), up 6%, and AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: ANTE), up 6%.
In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell 0.5%.
Top Headline
Google parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Tuesday.
Alphabet reported revenue of $55.3 billion in the first quarter, beating estimates of $51.7 billion. Earnings per share of $26.29 beat estimates of $15.88.
Equities Trading UP
Aurora Mobile Limited (NASDAQ: JG) shares shot up 23% to $4.3197 after Oppenheimer initiated coverage on the stock with an Outperform rating and a price target of $6 per share.
Shares of Creatd, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRTD) got a boost, shooting 22% to $4.55 after the company reported strategic investment in Untamed Photographer, NFT Collaboration, and Vocal Community and Challenge Sponsorships.
Boxlight Corporation (NASDAQ: BOXL) shares were also up, gaining 17% to $2.85. Maxim Group reiterated Boxlight with a Buy and announced a $6 price target.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE: PLX) shares tumbled 41% to $3.43. Protalix BioTherapeutics and partner Chiesi announced that they received a complete response letter from the FDA regarding the biologics license application, seeking accelerated approval of pegunigalsidase alfa for the proposed treatment of adult patients with Fabry disease.
Shares of Urban Tea, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYT) were down 37% to $2.92 after the company reported pricing of approximately $25million registered direct offering.
Benitec Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ: BNTC) was down, falling 24% to $4.18 after the company reported that, due to demand, the underwriter has agreed to increase the size of the previously announced offering of 3.036 million shares of common stock at a price of $4.25 per share, for raising gross proceeds of $12.9 million.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $63.04, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,765.70.
Silver traded down 1.6% Wednesday to $25.995 while copper fell 0.4% to $4.4685.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.1% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.3%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 climbed 0.5% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.1%.
French consumer confidence came in unchanged at 94 in April. The Swiss investor sentiment index increased by 1.6 points to an all-time high of 68.3 in April.
Economics
US goods deficit widened to $90.59 billion in March from $87.1 billion in February. Exports increased 8.7% to $130.7 billion, while imports rose 6.8% to $232.6 billion.
US wholesale inventories rose 1.4% for March.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The survey of business uncertainty for April is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.
The Federal Open Market Committee will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.
The Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.
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