Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow gains 50 points, Imara shares plunge

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.15% to 34,942.77 while the NASDAQ rose 0.07% to 14,687.21. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.26% to 4,380.58.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,914,920 cases with around 607,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 30,946,140 cases and 411,400 deaths, while Brazil reported over 19,151,990 COVID-19 cases with 535,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 187,837,100 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,049,850 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares rose by 0.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CorePoint Lodging Inc. CPLG 21.56%, up 18%, and Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. AHT 11.74%, up 14%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 2%.

Top Headline

Citigroup Inc. C 0.67% reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Tuesday.

Citigroup reported quarterly earnings of $2.85 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.96 per share. The company’s revenue came in at $17.50 billion, versus expectations of $17.20 billion.

Equities Trading UP

SGOCO Group, Ltd. SGOC 35.56% shares shot up 48% to $14.22. SGOCO Group regained compliance with Nasdaq's listing standards on July 12 by filing its FY20 20-F.

Shares of Datasea Inc. DTSS 42.98% got a boost, shooting 38% to $4.0401. Datasea’s subsidiary Shuhai Zhangxun Information Technology Co., Ltd inked six purchase and distribution agreements to provide 5G Message-marketing Cloud Platform (5G MMCP) Version 3.0 and further enhanced product availability nationwide in China by adding new district partners..

Verb Technology Company, Inc. VERB 11.63% shares were also up, gaining 23% to $2.73. SHOP.COM and Verb announced plans to launch SHOP LIVE Live-streaming channel.

Equities Trading DOWN

IMARA Inc. IMRA 17.24% shares tumbled 17% to $5.87 after the company priced its previously announced underwritten public offering of shares at $6.00 per share for gross proceeds of $50 million.

Shares of Aspen Group, Inc. ASPU 6.74% were down 9% to $5.89. Aspen Group reported fourth-quarter sales growth of 35.46% year-on-year to $19.10 million, beating the consensus of $18.51 million. However, net loss per share came in at $0.09.

Glaukos Corporation GKOS 20.82% was down, falling 21% to $58.14 after William Blair downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its fiscal 2022 proposed physician fee schedule, which included two combined Category I cataract plus stent procedure codes.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.7% to $73.22, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,822.80.

Silver traded up 0.3% Wednesday to $26.225 while copper fell 0.9% to $4.2665.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.09%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.42% and the German DAX 30 slipped 0.01%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.47%, French CAC 40 declined 0.01% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.15%.

Industrial production in the Eurozone dropped 1% in May, recording the first decline in three months. Spain's consumer prices increased 2.7% annually in June. UK’s producer prices rose 4.3% year-over-year in June, while annual inflation rate in the UK rose to 2.5% in June from 2.1% in May.

Economics

Producer prices for final demand rose 1% in June.

The Federal Open Market Committee released its Beige Book report.