U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.36% to 48,360.33 while the NASDAQ rose 0.91% to 23,854.08. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.41% to 6,995.87.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed by 1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, materials stocks fell by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) posted better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter.

The company posted EPS of $3.43, beating market estimates of $3.00. The company's sales came in at $20.580 billion, topping expectations of $19.724 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

  • Allbirds Inc (NASDAQ:BIRD) shares shot up 349% to $11.17 after the company announced the execution of a definitive agreement with an institutional investor for a $50 million convertible financing facility. The company will pivot its business to AI compute infrastructure and change its name to “NewBird AI.”
  • Shares of Immutep Ltd – ADR (NASDAQ:IMMP) got a boost, surging 160% to $0.82 after the FDA granted the company Orphan Drug Designation for for eftilagimod alfa for the treatment of Soft Tissue Sarcoma.
  • Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) shares were also up, gaining 6% to $5.98. Snap said it will cut about 1,000 jobs, or roughly 16% of its workforce, as part of a broader restructuring aimed at reducing costs and improving profitability amid slowing growth and rising competitive pressure.

Equities Trading DOWN

  • BRP Inc (NASDAQ:DOO) shares dropped 36% to $50.60 after the company announced it suspended its FY27 guidance.
  • Shares of Allogene Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ALLO) were down 16% to $1.92 after the company announced a $175 million offering of 87.5 million shares at $2.00 per share.
  • Terawulf Inc (NASDAQ:WULF) was down, falling 7% to $19.46 as the company reported preliminary results and announced a common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $91.90 while gold traded up 0.1% at $4,850.30.

Silver traded up 0.9% to $80.210 on Wednesday, while copper fell 0.1% to $6.0780.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 slipped 0.3%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.6%. London's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%, Germany's DAX gained 0.2% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.7% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 surging 0.44%, China's Shanghai Composite climbing 0.02%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.29% and India's BSE Sensex surging 1.64%.

Economics

  • U.S. import prices rose by 0.8% month-over-month in March compared to a revised 0.9% gain in February.
  • U.S. export prices increased by 1.6% month-over-month in March following a revised 1.9% gain in February.
  • The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index surged to 11 in April, recording the highest reading in five months, up from -0.2 in the previous month and beating market estimates of -0.5.
  • U.S. mortgage applications rose 1.8% in the week ended April 10, compared to a 0.8% decline in the prior period.

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