Benzinga - by Avi Kapoor, Benzinga Staff Writer.
U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining over 200 points on Wednesday.
Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.58% to 39,511.62 while the NASDAQ rose 0.60% to 16,412.89. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.58% to 5,233.65.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Real estate shares jumped by 1.1% on Wednesday.
In trading on Wednesday, consumer discretionary shares rose by just 0.3%.
Top Headline
UniFirst Corporation (NYSE: UNF) reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings.
UniFirst posted quarterly earnings of $1.09 per share, missing market estimates of $1.23 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $590.70 million versus expectations of $587.84 million.
UniFirst said it sees FY24 revenue of $2.415 billion to $2.425 billion and earnings of $6.80 to $7.16 per share.
Equities Trading UP
Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIXT) shares shot up 82% to $4.1307 after the company announced the publication of pre-clinical data on its lead clinical compound, LB-100.
Shares of MariaDB plc (NYSE: MRDB) got a boost, surging 64% to $0.3675 after Progress Software announced that it is possibly considering an offer for the company.
Destiny Tech100 Inc (NYSE: DXYZ) shares were also up, gaining 30% to $11.68 after gaining 9% on Tuesday.
Equities Trading DOWN
Gamida Cell Ltd. (NASDAQ: GMDA) shares dropped 82% to $0.0620 after the company reported fourth-quarter results and disclosed the commencement of a restructuring process.
Shares of Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRCT) were down 48% to $13.76 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.
Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE: VLD) was down, falling 38% to $0.3586 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $81.17 while gold traded up 0.8% at $2,194.00.
Silver traded up 0.3% to $24.705 on Wednesday, while copper fell 0.2% to $3.9995.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.5% The German DAX rose 0.4% French CAC 40 rose 0.2% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.1%.
The economic sentiment indicator in the eurozone climbed to a three-month high level of 96.3 in March, while services confidence indicator rose to 6.3 from 6 a month ago. The consumer confidence indicator in the eurozone increased by 0.6 points to a reading of -14.9 in March.
Spain posted a current account surplus of €5,127 million in January, higher than the €2,340 million surplus recorded in year-ago period, while consumer price inflation rate accelerated to 3.2% year-over-year in March. The construction output in Italy surged by 14.8% year-over-year in January, while consumer confidence indicator in France climbed to 91 in March.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.90%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.36%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipping 1.26% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.73%.
Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms jumped by 10.2% year-over-year to CNY 914.06 billion during the first two months of the year.
Economics
U.S. mortgage applications declined by 0.7% on the week ending March 22, 2024.
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