Dow Jumps Over 200 Points; Kraft Heinz Shares Gain After Q2 Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.54% to 40,964.19 while the NASDAQ rose 2.53% to 17,581.11. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.64% to 5,525.69.

Leading and Lagging SectorsInformation technology shares rose by 3.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, health care shares fell by 0.1%.

Top HeadlineThe Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) shares gained around 4% on Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter adjusted EPS results.

Equities Trading UP                       

• noco-noco Inc. (NASDAQ:NCNC) shares shot up 72% to $0.2638.
• Shares of Primech Holdings Ltd  (NASDAQ:PMEC) got a boost, surging 62% to $0.8531  after gaining over 5% on Tuesday.
• NuZee, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUZE) shares were also up, gaining 64% to $6.05 after gaining around 3% on Tuesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Imunon, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMNN) shares dropped 57% to $1.4301 after the company announced a $10 million registered direct offering of 5 million  shares of common stock with unregistered warrants at a price of $2 per unit.
• Shares of FibroGen, Inc (NASDAQ:FGEN) were down 46% to $0.5534.  The company announced topline results from two late-stage trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of pamrevlumab in patients with pancreatic cancer and said its Precision Promise study in metastatic pancreatic cancer did not meet its primary endpoint.
• PepGen Inc. (NASDAQ:PEPG) was down, falling 44% to $9.54.  The company announced clinical data from the first dose cohort of PGN-EDO51.

CommoditiesIn commodity news, oil traded up 3.8% to $77.56 while gold traded up 0.7% at $2,468.20.

Silver traded up 1.5% to $28.955 on Wednesday, while copper rose 2.5% to $4.1865.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.8%, Germany's DAX rose 0.53% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.76%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 1.23%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 1.13%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 1.49%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumping 2.01% and S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.35%.

Economics

• U.S. pending home sales rose by 4.8% from the prior month in June compared to a revised contraction of 1.9%.
• U.S. crude oil inventories declined by 3.436 million barrels in the week ended July 26th, above market estimates of a 1.6 million barrel draw.
• Private businesses in the U.S. added 122,000 workers to their payrolls in July, versus a revised 155,000 in June.

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