U.S. stocks traded mostly higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.40% to 52,432.64 while the NASDAQ declined 0.01% to 25,834.80. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.20% to 7,524.26.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares jumped by 1.8% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology stocks fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

GE Vernova (NYSE:GEV) shares fell around 6% on Wednesday after the company reported mixed second-quarter financial results.

GE Vernov reported quarterly earnings of $2.47 per share which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $3.13 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $11.104 billion which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $10.734 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

  • Lakewood-amedex Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:LABT) shares shot up 128% to $4.24 after the company announced resistance data for Nu-3.
  • Shares of Super Micro Computer Inc (NASDAQ:SMCI) got a boost, surging 23% to $31.37 after the company reported preliminary fourth-quarter financial results.
  • Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ARWR) shares were also up, gaining 26% to $93.59 after the company announced topline results for the global Phase 3 SHASTA-3 and SHASTA-4 clinical studies met their primary and secondary endpoints.

Equities Trading DOWN

  • Adtran Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ADTN) shares dropped 16% to $10.15 after the company preliminary second-quarter revenue guidance below prior estimates.
  • Shares of China Pharma Holdings Inc (NYSE:CPHI) were down 75% to $2.05 after the company announced the pricing of $5 million registered direct offering.
  • Pegasystems Inc (NASDAQ:PEGA) was down, falling 13% to $26.76 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter financial results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $86.06 while gold traded up 1.8% at $4,149.80.

Silver traded up 2.5% to $60.565 on Wednesday, while copper fell 0.5% to $6.5200.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.8%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.3% London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.5%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.6%, while France’s CAC 40 surged 1.1%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.18%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index falling 0.95%, China’s Shanghai Composite rising 0.07% and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.92%.

Economics

The volume of mortgage applications surged by 1.9% in the week ending July 17.

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