Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.62% to 31,121.40 while the NASDAQ rose 1.70% to 13,421.43. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.10% to 3,840.51.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 24,254,280 cases with around 401,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,595,630 confirmed cases and 152,710 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,573,860 COVID-19 cases with 211,490 deaths. In total, there were at least 96,269,160 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,059,560 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Communication services shares gained by 2.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Qutoutiao Inc - ADR QTT, up 21%, and Netflix Inc
NFLX, up 13%.
In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 0.5%.
Top Headline
Morgan Stanley MS reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.
Morgan Stanley reported quarterly earnings of $1.92 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.27 per share. The company posted managed revenue of $13.60 billion, versus estimates of $11.54 billion.
Equities Trading UP
Obalon Therapeutics, Inc. OBLN shares shot up 75% to $2.81 after the company announced a merger agreement with ReShape Lifesciences.
Shares of Daré Bioscience, Inc. DARE got a boost, shooting 39% to $3.29 after climbing around 64% on Tuesday. Dare Bioscience, earlier during the month, filed for offer and sale of up to 6.4 million shares of common stock by Lincoln Park Capital Fund.
Gritstone Oncology, Inc. GRTS shares were also up, gaining 51% to $33.53. Gritstone and Genevant Sciences reported a license agreement for COVID-19 vaccine. The company’s shares jumped over 248% on Tuesday after the company announced that it is advancing development of a second generation vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, with potential for both prolonged protection and potency against spike mutants.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
Document Security Systems, Inc. DSS shares tumbled 31% to $3.8122 after the company priced a $24 million upsized public offering of common stock.
Shares of China Natural Resources, Inc. CHNR were down 27% to $1.70 after the company reported an offering of $7.3 million of common shares at $1.85 per share.
BioLineRx Ltd.. BLRX was down, falling 21% to $2.50 after the company increased its earlier announced bought deal offering to $30 million.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $53.59, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,851.90.
Silver traded up 0.5% Wednesday to $25.445 while copper rose 0.4% to $3.6470.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.4% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.6%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.5%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.6%.
UK’s producer prices declined 0.4% year-over-year, while inflation rate increased to 0.6% in December. Germany's producer prices rose 0.2% year-over-year in December.
Economics
The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 2.5% during the first two weeks of January versus December.
The NAHB housing market index declined 3 points to a reading of 83 in January.
The Treasury is set to auction 20-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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