US Stocks Higher; Target Posts Upbeat Earnings

Author: Avi Kapoor | August 21, 2024 10:29am

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 50 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.13% to 40,886.56 while the NASDAQ rose 0.49% to 17,904.16. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.35% to 5,616.74.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed by 1.2% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and raised FY24 EPS outlook.

Quarterly adjusted earnings per share totaled $2.57 (+40%), beating the street view of $2.20. Target reported sales of $25.45 billion (+2.7%), exceeding the analyst consensus of $25.229 billion.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Revelation Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:REVB) shares shot up 194% to $0.4361.
• Shares of Smart for Life, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMFL) got a boost, surging 99% to $1.92 after the company said it is negotiating the acquisition of four health and wellness targets.
• Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. (NASDAQ:SDIG) shares were also up, gaining 94% to $9.71 after the company announced it entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by Bitfarms.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Eyenovia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYEN) shares dropped 43% to $0.3819 after the company announced the pricing of $5.14 million public offering.
• Shares of Mynaric AG (NASDAQ:MYNA) were down 24% to $1.3897.
• Santech Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:STEC) was down, falling 17% to $0.3595.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $73.61 while gold traded down 0.4% at $2,538.10.

Silver traded down 0.5% to $29.36 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.2% to $4.1675.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, Germany's DAX rose 0.5% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.4%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.1%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%.

The annual inflation rate in the Eurozone increased to 2.6% in July from 2.5% in the prior month, while current account surplus rose to €52.4 billion in June from €32.4 billion a year ago. Italy’s current account surplus widened to EUR 4,885 billion in June from EUR 1,248 billion in the year-ago period. Producer prices in Germany fell by 0.8% year-over-year in July.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.29%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.69%, China's Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.35% and India's BSE Sensex rising 0.13%.

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong increased to 2.5% in July from 1.5% in the prior month. The People’s Bank of China kept key lending rates unchanged at the recent fixing.

Economics

Mortgage applications in the U.S. declined by 10.1% from the prior week in the week ending Aug. 16.

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Posted In: EYEN MYNA REVB SDIG SMFL STEC TGT