Gold Moves Lower; AT&T Earnings Top Views

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones index dipping more than 250 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.63% to 42,654.26 while the NASDAQ fell 0.47% to 18,486.46. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.33% to 5,831.63.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 0.5% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 0.9%.

Top Headline

Boeing Co reported a loss for the third quarter on Wednesday.

The company posted a 1% year-over-year revenue decline to $17.854 billion in the third quarter of 2024, missing the consensus of $17.931 billion. Adjusted loss per share expanded to $10.44 from $3.62 in the same quarter of 2023, missing the consensus of $10.34.

Equities Trading UP

• La Rosa Holdings Corp. shares shot up 164% to $1.3300 after the company reported preliminary 9-moth revenue growth of 120% year over year.
• Shares of CNS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. got a boost, surging 90% to $0.2979. The company requested a panel hearing for November 5, 2024, and will be subject to a halt in the suspension or delisting decision until then.
• Virax Biolabs Group Limited shares were also up, gaining 87% to $3.1197 after the company announced a distribution agreement with Europa Biosite to commercialize the ImmuneSelect research-use portfolio in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Alto Neuroscience, Inc. shares dropped 62% to $5.53 after the company announced topline results from a Phase 2b trial evaluating ALTO-100 as a treatment for major depressed disorder did not meet its primary endpoint.
• Shares of Ensysce Biosciences, Inc. were down 26% to $0.3960.
• Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. was down, falling 26% to $0.2616.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.3% to $70.80 while gold traded down 0.5% at $2,747.40.

Silver traded down 2.5% to $34.180 on Wednesday, while copper fell 1.3% to $4.3240.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, Germany's DAX fell 0.2% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.5%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.1%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.5%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.80%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 1.27%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.52% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.17%.

Singapore's annual inflation rate eased to 2.0% in September versus 2.2% in the previous month.

Economics

U.S. mortgage applications declined by 6.7% from the previous week during the third week of October, following a 17% dip in the earlier period.

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© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

US stocks look set to open lower in Wednesday's trading session ahead of existing home sales figures, crude oil inventories, and a speech by Federal Reserve board member Michelle Bowman.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.6%, S&P 500 futures were off 0.3%, and Nasdaq futures were moving 0.4% lower.

Existing home sales for September, released by the National Association of Realtors, are expected to rise to 3.88 million from 3.86 million in August, according to Bloomberg. The report can be an indicator of the US housing market's condition as well as a gauge of overall economic strength.

Crude oil inventories from the Energy Information Administration, which measures the weekly change in the number of barrels of commercial crude oil held by US firms, are expected to come in at 700,000, compared with -2.2 million the previous month, according to Bloomberg.

US Federal Reserve's Bowman is speaking at the Eighth Annual Fintech Conference, with investors looking for hints on the Fed's future considerations regarding interest rates. Bowman had dissented the Federal Open Market Committee's decision to cut rates.

Oil prices were tumbling lower, with front-month global benchmarks Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate crude falling 1.7% and 1.8%, respectively.

In other world markets, Japan's Nikkei declined 0.8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.3%, and China's Shanghai Composite was up 0.5%. Meanwhile in Europe's early afternoon session, the UK's FTSE 100 was down 0.6%, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC were off 0.2% and 0.7%, respectively.

In equities, shares of Virax Biolabs Group were up 70% after the company said Wednesday that its Cambridge Bioscience unit signed a distribution deal with Europa Biosite to commercialize the company's ImmuneSelect Research Use portfolio in the UK and Ireland. DBV Technologies' stock was 61% higher in Wednesday's premarket session after the company reported late Tuesday positive regulatory updates for its Viaskin Peanut Patch in the US and Europe. Spirit Airlines' shares were up 30% after The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources, that Frontier Group (ULCC) is exploring reviving its bid for the airline and that the companies have held early-stage discussions for a possible merger.

On the losing side, shares of Alto Neuroscience were down 63% after the company said late Tuesday that a phase 2b study of ALTO-100 in patients with major depressive disorder failed to meet its primary endpoint. Genprex stock was 18% lower after rising nearly 138% the previous session. Constellium shares were down 17% after the company reported lower Q3 earnings and revenue that also missed Capital IQ analysts' expectations. Shares of Enphase Energy fell 16% after the company overnight reported lower Q3 non-GAAP earnings and revenue that also trailed analyst estimates.

On Wednesday, Virax Biolabs Group Limited entered into a distribution agreement with Europa Biosite to commercialize the company's ImmuneSelect Research Use portfolio in the U.K. and Ireland through its wholly-owned subsidiary Cambridge Bioscience.

"ImmuneSelect is an important suite of profiling solutions for assessing adaptive immunity...," said James Foster, CEO of Virax Biolabs.

Also Read: Virax Biolabs Announces Stock Offering: What To Know.

"We believe this partnership will meaningfully expand our commercial footprint in the UK and Ireland and make ImmuneSelect accessible to researchers and pharmaceutical companies..."

"We look forward to leveraging our commercial infrastructure to quickly deliver and provide local technical support to ensure that ImmuneSelect is available in the UK & Ireland," commented Martijn Blommaart, Director of Supplier Development at Europa Biosite.

In April this year, Virax Biolabs launched ‘ImmuneSelect’ within the ViraxImmune T-Cell diagnostic platform for research-use-only (RUO) at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Global 2024 Congress.

ImmuneSelect is developed to evaluate T-Cell driven immunity and to aid in the understanding and early characterization of symptoms associated with post-viral syndromes, including Long COVID.

Products within the ImmuneSelect brand are for research and investigational use only and are not intended to be used as a diagnostics tool. 

The ImmuneSelect portfolio includes peptide pools covering epitopes from pathogens linked to post-viral syndromes. 

In August, Virax Biolabs announced a distribution agreement with a supplier of (RT) PCR Mpox virus detection kits to commercialize them in some European and Gulf countries.

The RT PCR Mpox virus detection kits are approved for sale in Europe and also authorized by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the product regulatory agency for the United Kingdom.

Price Action: VRAX stock closed at $1.68 on Tuesday.

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© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Health care stocks were mixed late Wednesday afternoon with the NYSE Health Care Index easing 0.2% and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) little changed.

The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) dropped 0.1%.

In corporate news, Virax Biolabs shares jumped 10%. The company signed a distribution deal with a supplier to market RT-PCR Mpox virus detection kits in 13 European countries and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.