Crude Oil Moves Higher; Travelers Earnings Beat Estimates

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index falling over 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.55% to 40,145.06 while the NASDAQ dipped 2.08% to 16,473.81. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.22% to 5,330.57.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares surged by 1.9% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell by 2.8%.

Top Headline

Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TRV) posted better-than-expected first-quarter results on Wednesday.

The company posted quarterly sales of $11.81 billion (+5% year over year) outpacing the analyst consensus estimate of $10.81 billion. The company reported first-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.91, beating the street view of $0.80.

The company declared a regular quarterly dividend increase of 5% to $1.10 per share.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Treasure Global Inc. (NASDAQ:TGL) shares shot up 67% to $3.2150 after the company announced that it has secured an exclusive partnership with Mezzofy to become the sole distributor of its digital coupon platform and is targeting $2-4 million in annual recurring revenue.
• Shares of Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTZ)got a boost, surging 15% to $4.2106 after Pershing Square Capital Management disclosed via a 13F that it bought 12.7 million shares in the company.
• iCAD, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICAD) shares were also up, gaining 67% to $3.2150 after the company announced it will be acquired by RadNet for a deal worth approximately $103 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

• SUNation Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNE) shares dropped 48% to $0.0211 as the company announced a 1-for-200 reverse stock split.
• Shares of Ostin Technology Group Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:OST) were down 38% to $1.98. Ostin Technology Group announced the pricing of $5.0 million registered direct offering.
• Biomerica, Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRA) was down, falling 26% to $0.4243 after the company announced a 1-for-8 reverse stock split.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.7% to $62.39 while gold traded up 2.8% at $3,330.10.

Silver traded up 1.6% to $32.805 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.1% to $4.6315.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.83%, Germany's DAX 40 declined 0.51% and France's CAC 40 dipped 0.67%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index slipped 0.12%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.26%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 1.01%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.26%, Hong Kong's Gang Seng index dipping 1.91% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.4%.

Economics

• U.S. industrial production declined by 0.3% in March compared to market estimates of a 0.2% fall.
• U.S. retail sales rose 1.4% month-over-month in March versus a 0.2% gain in the previous month and better than estimates of 1.3%.
• U.S. mortgage application volumes dipped by 8.5% from the previous week during the second week of April.
• Crude oil inventories in the U.S. climbed by 0.515 million barrels in the week ended April 11, compared to market estimates of a 0.4 million gain.

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