Mid-afternoon market update: Nasdaq rises 70 points, Stitch Fix shares slide

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.08% to 35,692.63 while the NASDAQ rose 0.45% to 15,757.04. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.12% to 4,692.41.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 50,270,130 cases with around 812,200 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,656,820 cases and 473,950 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,157,720 COVID-19 cases with 616,060 deaths. In total, there were at least 267,527,370 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,289,820 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares climbed 0.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Roku, Inc. ROKU +18.56% (Get Free Alerts for ROKU), up 15% and Stagwell Inc. STGW +9.81% (Get Free Alerts for STGW) up 11%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell 1.1%.

Top Headline

United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI +13.51% reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

United Natural Foods reported a quarterly profit of $0.97 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.56 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $7.00 billion, versus expectations of $6.80 billion.

United Natural Foods reaffirmed FY22 guidance, expecting adjusted EPS of $3.90 to $4.20.

Equities Trading UP

RLX Technology Inc. RLX +21.61% shares shot up 19% to $4.6650 after the company announced a $500 million buyback.

Shares of Photronics, Inc. PLAB +25.07% got a boost, shooting 18% to $16.79 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results. The company also issued Q1 EPS and sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Wejo Group Limited WEJO +13.25% shares were also up, gaining 19% to $6.90 after Baird initiated coverage on the stock with an Outperform rating and announced a $12 price target.

Equities Trading DOWN

Nuvei Corporation NVEI -40.98% shares tumbled 40% to $58.65 following a short report on the company by Spruce Point Capital Management.

Shares of Radius Health , Inc. RDUS -44.4% were down 43% to $8.14 after the company posted topline data from Phase 3 wearABLe study evaluating the non-inferiority (NI) of abaloparatide transdermal system (abalo-TDS) compared to abaloparatide subcutaneous injection (Tymlos) in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

Stitch Fix, Inc. SFIX -23.17% was down, falling 23% to $19.22 after the company issued Q2 net sales guidance below estimates. Evercore ISI Group and Keybanc downgraded the stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $72.78, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,782.50.

Silver traded down 0.6% Wednesday to $22.40 while copper rose 1% to $4.3835.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.59%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.95% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.80%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.01%, French CAC 40 fell 0.72% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 1.42%.

Payroll employment in the French private sector rose 0.5% to 19.93 million in the third quarter.

Economics

The number of job openings rose by 431,000 from a month ago to 11.033 million in October, the Labor Department said.

Stocks of crude oil in the US fell by 0.24 million barrels in the latest week, the Energy Information Administration said.