Benzinga - by Lisa Levin, Benzinga Editor.
U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than 1% on Wednesday.
The Dow traded down 0.57% to 34,443.02 while the NASDAQ fell 1.19% to 13,853.60. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.80% to 4,460.96.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Utilities shares jumped by 0.2% on Wednesday.
In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell by 1.5%.
Top Headline
Core & Main Inc (NYSE: CNM) reported a second-quarter miss and narrowed its FY23 guidance.
Core & Main reported second-quarter FY23 sales of $1.861 billion flat year-over-year, missing the consensus of $1.88 billion. EPS decreased 4.3% Y/Y to $0.66, missing the consensus of $0.68.
Equities Trading UP
Palisade Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALI) shares shot up 132% to $1.60. Palisade Bio transformed GI-focused pipeline through exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Giiant Pharma, Inc. for multiple oral drug candidates targeting inflammatory bowel disease.
Shares of Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDTX) got a boost, shooting 20% to $0.9551 after Janssen elected to proceed under its license agreement relating to influenza candidate.
Marin Software Incorporated (NASDAQ: MRIN) shares were also up, gaining 52% to $0.6509 after the company reported HubSpot integration.
Equities Trading DOWN
EZGO Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: EZGO) shares dropped 83% to $0.2987 after the company reported pricing of $10 million registered direct offering.
Shares of Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) were down 27% to $1.21. Akoustis Technologies reported fourth-quarter FY23 revenue growth of 60.2% year-on-year to $8.33 million, missing the consensus of $8.44 million.
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC) was down, falling 34% to $9.00 after the company entered an equity distribution agreement for up to 40 million shares at an at-the-market program.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4% to $87.93 while gold traded down 0.6% at $1,941.30.
Silver traded down 1.7% to $23.46 on Wednesday while copper fell 1.5% to $3.79.
Euro zone
European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.57% London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.16% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.83% The German DAX slipped 0.19% French CAC 40 fell 0.84%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.54%.
Retail sales in the Eurozone fell by 0.2% month-over-month in July following a revised 0.2% growth in June, while Eurozone construction PMI fell to 43.4 in August from July’s reading of 43.5.
The S&P Global France construction PMI declined to 42.4 in August from 42.9 a month ago, while German construction PMI rose to 41.5 from 41. The S&P Global/CIPS UK construction PMI fell to 50.8 in August from 51.7 in the previous month.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.62%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.04% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.12%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.1%.
The Australian economy grew by 0.4% quarter-over-quarter during the second quarter of the year, while Ai Group Australian Industry Index rose by 3.1 points to a reading of -11.6 in August.
Economics
U.S. mortgage applications declined 2.9% in the week ending Sept. 1, 2023, following a 2.3% increase in the prior week.
The U.S. trade deficit widened to $65 billion in July versus a revised $63.7 billion in the prior month, and compared to market expectations for a $68 billion gap.
Exports rose 1.6% to a four-month high level of $251.7 billion, while imports rose 1.7% to $316.7 billion in July.
The S&P Global services PMI was revised lower to 50.5 in August versus a preliminary level of 51.
The S&P Global composite PMI was revised lower to 50.2 in August versus a preliminary reading of 50.4 and compared to the earlier month's reading of 52.0.
The ISM services PMI rose to 54.5 in August, signalling the strongest growth in the services activity in six months, up from July’s reading of 52.7.
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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 108,192,020 cases with around 1,174,290 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,997,320 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 694,933,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,912,570 deaths.
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