U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.39% to 53,549.17 while the NASDAQ fell 0.40% to 26,396.03. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.50% to 7,729.89.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 3.9% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology stocks fell by 1.2%.

Top Headline

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) stock gained around 5% on Wednesday after the home improvement retailer reported mixed second-quarter 2026 results and narrowed its full-year outlook below Wall Street estimates.

Adjusted earnings rose 1.6% to $4.40 per share from $4.33, beating the $4.22 analyst estimate. Net sales rose 8.3% to $25.96 billion from $23.96 billion a year earlier but missed the $26.16 billion estimate.

Equities Trading UP
           

  • Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL) shares shot up 16% to $98.08 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results and issued its FY27 sales guidance with its midpoint above estimates.
  • Shares of Tenon Medical Inc (NASDAQ:TNON) got a boost, surging 114% to $11.68 after the company received a notice of allowance for a U.S. Patent Titled “Systems, Apparatus and Methods for Stabilizing Sacroiliac Joints”
  • Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares were also up, gaining 145% to $154.04 after the company and Merck announced topline results from the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial met its primary and a key secondary endpoint.

Equities Trading DOWN

  • WhiteFiber Inc (NASDAQ:WYFI) shares dropped 26% to $20.00 after the company announced the pricing of its $250 million offering of convertible senior notes.
  • Shares of Datavault AI Inc (NASDAQ:DVLT) were down 20% to $0.31 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter financial results. The company announced it will acquire BankWyse.
  • CID HoldCo Inc (NASDAQ:DAIC) was down, falling 31% to $0.44 after the company announced an additional Nasdaq listing deficiency and a loan default.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.8% to $86.48 while gold traded up 2.4% at $4,525.50.

Silver traded up 2% to $65.340 on Wednesday, while copper fell 0.4% to $6.4680.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.2%, Germany’s DAX declined 0.2%, while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.1%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipping 3.16%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gaining 0.09%, China’s Shanghai Composite dropping 2.40% and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.42%.

Economics

  • The volume of mortgage applications fell by 0.4% in the second week of August.
  • U.S. crude inventories surged by 4.405 million barrels to 428.8 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 14, recording a third straight weekly rise.

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