Stocks Open Higher; US Trade Deficit Widens In April

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher this morning, with Nasdaq Composite gaining over 75 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.05% to 33,590.92 while the NASDAQ rose 0.55% to 13,349.38. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.18% to 4,291.74.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares jumped by 1.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Verde Clean Fuels, Inc. (NASDAQ:VGAS), up 6%, and Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (NYSE:CRT), up 4%.
• In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell by 0.4%.

 

Top Headline

The trade deficit in the U.S. increased to a six-month high level of $74.6 billion in April, versus a $60.6 billion gap in the prior month. Exports from the U.S. fell by $9.2 billion from a month ago to $249 billion in April, while imports rose by $4.8 billion to $323.6 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

• Yext, Inc. (NASDAQ:YEXT) shares shot up 34% to $12.90 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and issued strong FY24 forecast.
• Shares of Chijet Motor Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:CJET) got a boost, shooting 23% to $5.15 after dropping around 29% on Tuesday.
• Stitch Fix, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFIX) shares were also up, gaining 28% to $4.70 as the company reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Mondee Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MOND) shares dropped 26% to $9.39 after the company reported pricing of secondary offering of common stock by selling stockholders.
• Shares of NewAmsterdam Pharma Company N.V. (NASDAQ:NAMS) were down 15% to $11.70. NewAmsterdam Pharma priced its 13,857 million share secondary offering of ordinary shares at $11.50 per share.
• Couchbase, Inc. (NASDAQ:BASE) was down, falling 16% to $18.68 after the company posted first-quarter earnings and issued weak second-quarter sales forecast.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $72.46 while gold traded down 0.2% at $1,977.50.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $23.695 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.5% to $3.7870.

 

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.9% The German DAX gained 0.1% French CAC 40 rose 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.3%.

Retail sales in Italy rose 0.2% from the prior month in April. France reported a current account gap of EUR 0.1 billion in April 2023, versus a revised EUR 0.3 billion surplus in the prior month. French trade deficit increased to EUR 9.7 billion in April versus a revised EUR 8.4 billion gap in the prior month. Industrial production in Germany rose 0.3% month-over-month in April. The Halifax house price index in the UK declined 1% year-over-year in May.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.82%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.80% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.08%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.56%.

Austria recorded a trade surplus of EUR 0.44 billion in March versus a year-ago deficit of EUR 1.61 billion, while the country’s economy expanded 0.2% qoq in the first quarter. Foreign exchange reserves in Hong Kong fell to a seven-month low of $421 billion in May, while Chinese foreign exchange reserves declined to $3.177 trillion in May. Chinese trade surplus narrowed to $65.81 billion in May from $78.40 billion in the year-ago period.

The index of leading economic indicators in Japan rose to 97.6 in April from a final reading of 96.9 in the prior month, while index of coincident economic indicators climbed to 99.4 in April versus a 99.2 in the previous month.

 

Economics

• Mortgage applications in the US dropped 1.4% in the week ended June 2, 2023.
• The trade deficit in the U.S. increased to a six-month high level of $74.6 billion in April, versus a $60.6 billion gap in the prior month. Exports from the U.S. fell by $9.2 billion from a month ago to $249 billion in April, while imports rose by $4.8 billion to $323.6 billion.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 107,147,350 cases with around 1,166,160 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,992,090 cases and 531,880 deaths, while France reported over 40,102,440 COVID-19 cases with 167,420 deaths. In total, there were at least 690,000,260 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,888,820 deaths.