Benzinga | Sep 22, 2021 10:34AM EDT

Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; General Mills Reports Upbeat Q1 Results

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.01% to 34,262.50 while the NASDAQ rose 0.63% to 14,839.63. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.82% to 4,389.97.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 42,413,620 cases with around 678,500 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,531,490 cases and 445,760 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,247,090 COVID-19 cases with 591,440 deaths. In total, there were at least 229,573,930 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,709,420 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 3.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SilverBow Resources, Inc. (NYSE:SBOW), up 6% and Precision Drilling Corporation (NYSE:PDS) up 9%.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter on Wednesday.

General Mills reported quarterly earnings of $0.99 per share, beating analysts' expectations of $0.89 per share. The company's quarterly sales came in at $4.50 billion, exceeding estimates of $4.29 billion.

General Mills reaffirmed its FY22 outlook, sees organic new sales toward higher end of down 1%-3% range.

Equities Trading UP

Marin Software Incorporated (NASDAQ:MRIN) shares shot up 60% to $9.10 after the company announced a revenue share agreement with Google.

Shares of Aethlon Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEMD) got a boost, shooting 42% to $5.36 on above-average volume.

Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCB) shares were also up, gaining 23% to $59.01. Toyota and Discovery Education launched an initiative inspiring student innovation in STEM.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

InnovAge Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:INNV) shares tumbled 25% to $8.69 after the company reported downbeat Q4 earnings and issued weak FY22 sales forecast.

Shares of ReWalk Robotics Ltd. (NASDAQ:RWLK) were down 23% to $2.0050 after climbing 99% on Tuesday.

Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) was down, falling 23% to $5.00 after the company announced that the FDA disagrees with its proposed change to the primary endpoint in Phase 3 Ri-CoDIFy studies.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4% to $71.49, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,776.50.

Silver traded up 0.4% Wednesday to $22.705 while copper rose 2.6% to $4.2350.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.5%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.6% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.5%. Meanwhile, the London's FTSE 100 rose 1.1%, French CAC 40 jumped 1% and Italy's FTSE MIB climbed 0.6%.

The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone increased 1.3 points to a reading of -4 in September.

Economics

Existing-home sales fell by 2% to 5.88 million in August.

The Energy Information Administration's weekly report on petroleum inventories is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Federal Reserve will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here