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U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 300 points on Wednesday.
Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.93% to 33,156.76 while the NASDAQ rose 0.58% to 10,608.21. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.72% to 3,849.10.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 1.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NIKE, Inc. NKE, up 15%, and Six Flags Entertainment Corporation SIX, up 11%.
In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares rose by just 0.2%.
Top Headline
The US current account deficit shrank by 9.1%, to $217.1 billion in the third quarter versus a revised $238.7 billion in the prior quarter and compared with market estimates of $222.0 billion.
Equities Trading UP
- Sintx Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SINT) shares shot up 51% to $11.25 after the company was awarded Phase I contract for $150,000 from the Missile Defense Agency for electrochemical machining.
- Shares of F-star Therapeutics, Inc. FSTX got a boost, shooting 27% to $5.48.
- Butterfly Network, Inc. BFLY shares were also up, gaining 15% to $2.5385. Butterfly Network recently completed successful deployment of 500 Butterfly iQ+ devices and training of 500+ healthcare workers across 224 facilities in Kenya.
Equities Trading DOWN
- Rite Aid Corporation RAD shares tumbled 14% to $3.7777 after the company reported results for its third quarter.
- Shares of Caravelle International Group (NASDAQ: CACO) were down 20% to $1.6942 after dropping 57% on Tuesday.
- Pebblebrook Hotel Trust PEB was down, falling 9% to $13.14 after the company lowered its FY22 FFO per share guidance.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $77.84 while gold traded up 0.2% at $1,828.20.
Silver traded down 0.1% to $24.26 on Wednesday while copper slipped 0.1% to $3.7990.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.2%. The German DAX rose 1%, French CAC 40 climbed 1.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.1%.
The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator in Germany improved to -37.8 heading into January compared to a revised reading of -40.1 in December.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 0.68% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.34%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.17%.
Hong Kong’s current account surplus increased to HKD 115.8 billion in the third quarter from HKD 91 billion in the year-ago period.
Economics
The US current account deficit shrank by 9.1%, to $217.1 billion in the third quarter versus a revised $238.7 billion in the prior quarter and compared with market estimates of $222.0 billion.
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COVID-19 Update
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 101,865,920 cases with around 1,113,800 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,677,440 cases and 530,680 deaths, while France reported over 38,971,110 COVID-19 cases with 160,740 deaths. In total, there were at least 659,146,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,676,260 deaths.
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Image and article originally from www.benzinga.com. Read the original article here.