Nasdaq Surges 1.5%; Procter & Gamble Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 100 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.30% to 44,159.42 while the NASDAQ rose 1.48% to 20,049.15. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.83% to 6,099.61.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares surged by 2% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Procter & Gamble Company PG posted better-than-expected second-quarter financial results.

The company reported second-quarter sales growth of 2% year-on-year to $21.9 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $21.542 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.88 beat the consensus estimate of $1.86.

P&G maintained its guidance range for FY25 organic sales growth of 3%-5% and all-in sales growth of 2%-4%. P&G maintained its FY25 EPS growth outlook of 10%-12% versus an EPS of $6.02 in FY24.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Blackboxstocks Inc. BLBX shares shot up 69% to $2.86 after the company announced a $250K securities purchase agreement and is anticipating a potential merger.
• Shares of Absci Corporation ABSIgot a boost, surging 27% to $4.0950 after Needham initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $9 price target.
• ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd. IPA shares were also up, gaining 49% to $0.7322 after the company announced it developed a new class of GLP-1 therapies using its LENS platform.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Agilysys, Inc. AGYS shares dropped 20% to $101.25 after the company reported worse-than-expected third-quarter sales results and issued FY25 revenue guidance below estimates.
• Shares of Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. HEPA were down 59% to $0.13 after the company announced a $9 million public offering.
• Lisata Therapeutics, Inc. LSTA was down, falling 23% to $3.02 after the company announced preliminary cohort data from its Phase 2 Ascend trial.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $75.49 while gold traded up 0.3% at $2,768.10.

Silver traded down 0.6% to $31.320 on Wednesday, while copper fell 0.9% to $4.3015.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 surged 0.49%, Germany’s DAX 40 rose 1.16% and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.82%. Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.41%, while London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.02%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.58%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.89%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.63% and India’s BSE Sensex gaining 0.75%.

Economics

U.S. mortgage applications rose 0.1% from the previous week in the week ending Jan. 17.

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