Mid-Day Market Update: Aspen Group drops following Q4 results; Datasea shares surge

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.05% to 34,907.35 while the NASDAQ rose 0.48% to 14,747.61. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.24% to 4,379.85.

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

Information technology shares rose by 1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SGOCO Group, Ltd. SGOC 32.56%, up 52%, and Verb Technology Company, Inc. VERB 11.33%, up 32%.

In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 1.2%.

Top Headline

Citigroup Inc. C 1.25% 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 32.56% shares shot up 52% to $14.61. SGOCO Group regained compliance with Nasdaq's listing standards on July 12 by filing its FY20 20-F.

Shares of Datasea Inc. DTSS 40.96% got a boost, shooting 59% to $4.65. 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 11.33% shares were also up, gaining 32% to $2.9250. SHOP.COM and Verb announced plans to launch SHOP LIVE Live-streaming channel.

Equities Trading DOWN

IMARA Inc. IMRA 17.07% shares tumbled 16% to $5.97 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 7.52% were down 10% to $5.77. 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 20.97% was down, falling 21% to $57.96 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 0.5% to $74.84, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,823.30.

Silver traded up 0.8% Wednesday to $26.36 while copper fell 0.8% to $4.2745.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.09%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.27% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.02%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.45%, French CAC 40 declined 0.04% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.3%.

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.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari will speak at 1:30 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will release its Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.