Mid-afternoon market update: Dow gains 75 points; GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH Stock) shares jump on acquisition news

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.25% to 30,763 while the NASDAQ rose 0.5% to 13,680.71. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.45% to 3,843.70.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 26,436,590 cases with around 446,900 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,777,280 confirmed cases and 154,590 deaths, while Brazil reported over 9,283,410 COVID-19 cases with 226,300 deaths. In total, there were at least 103,972,190 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,255,490 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 3.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Clean Energy Fuels Corp. CLNE 22.92%, up 20%, and Centrus Energy Corp LEU 15.59%, up 16%.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

Alphabet Inc. GOOGL 9.62% reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Alphabet reported quarterly earnings of $22.30 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $15.90 per share. The company posted revenue of $56.90 billion, versus estimates of $53.13 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Sino-Global Shipping America, Ltd. SINO 62.37% shares shot up 63% to $7.71
after the company announced a newly-appointed Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer to spearhead its efforts to enter Bitcoin mining.

Shares of GW Pharmaceuticals plc GWPH 45.35% got a boost, shooting 46% to $212.80 after the company announced it will be acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $7.2 billion.

Tyme Technologies Inc TYME 88.46% shares were also up, gaining 105% to $3.74 after the company was granted US patent claims covering the use of TYME-19 to treat COVID-19 infections.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Vaxart, Inc. VXRT 58.56% shares tumbled 59% to $9.65 after reporting that neutralizing antibodies were not detected in volunteers after a single dose of its experimental oral COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VXA-CoV2-1, in a Phase 1 trial of 35 healthy adults.

Shares of Moleculin Biotech, Inc. MBRX 26.12% were down 27% to $4.6450 after the company priced its 14,273,684 share common stock offering at $4.75 per share.

Iteris, Inc. ITI 14.51% was down, falling 15% to $6.01 after reporting downbeat quarterly results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.9% to $55.80, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,834.90.

Silver traded up 1.8% Wednesday to $26.885 while copper rose 1.2% to $3.5670.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.33%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.78% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.71%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 slipped 0.01%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.14% and Italy’s FTSE MIB surged 2.09%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone increased to 0.9% in January, while producer prices rose 0.8% in December. The IHS Markit Eurozone services PMI rose to 45.4 in January versus a preliminary estimate of 45. UK services PMI declined to 39.5 in January from 49.4 in December.

Economics

US private businesses hired 174,000 workers in January versus a revised 78,000 drop in the previous month.

The IHS Markit services PMI rose to 58.3 in January from a preliminary reading of 57.8.

The ISM services PMI rose to 58.7 in January from 57.7 in December.

US crude oil inventories declined 1 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester will speak at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans is set to speak at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:05 p.m. ET.