Benzinga | Jan 26, 2022 02:33PM EST

Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Surges Over 300 Points; Fed Leaves Rates Unchanged

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.82% to 34,578.14 while the NASDAQ rose 2.33% to 13,855.27. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.52% to 4,422.86.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 73,449,180 cases with around 894,880 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 40,085,110 cases and 491,150 deaths, while Brazil reported over 24,334,070 COVID-19 cases with 623,900 deaths. In total, there were at least 359,757,320 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,636,230 deaths.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares jumped 3% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ebang International Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:EBON), up 29% and Exela Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:XELA) up 26%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.1%.

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The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady during its recent meeting. The Fed, however, said it will soon be appropriate to raise Fed Funds rate.

Equities Trading UP

Stride, Inc. (NYSE:LRN) shares shot up 30% to $35.18 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results and issued Q3 guidance above estimates.

Shares of Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) got a boost, shooting 13% to $39.99 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results. The company also issued Q1 EPS and sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Exela Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:XELA) shares were also up, gaining 26% to $0.6931 after the company announced a share buyback of up to 100 million shares of common stock at $1 per share through an exchange offer of new notes.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Gatos Silver, Inc. (NYSE:GATO) shares tumbled 69% to $3.1250 after the company issued an update on mineral resources and reserves at Cerro Los Gatos and 2022 performance guidance. RBC Capital and CIBC downgraded the stock.

Shares of Cortexyme, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRTX) were down 30% to $6.34. The FDA placed a clinical hold on Cortexyme's atuzaginstat (COR388) Investigational New Drug application (IND 134303).

Mainz Biomed B.V. (NASDAQ:MYNZ) was down, falling 27% to $14.85 after the company priced a 1.5 million share follow-on offering at $15 per share.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.5% to $87.70, while gold traded down 1.1% to $1,831.40.

Silver traded down 0.3% Wednesday to $23.83 while copper rose 1.4% to $4.5125.

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Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 climbed 1.68%, London's FTSE 100 gained 1.33%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1.66%. The German DAX rose 2.22%, French CAC 40 gained 2.11% and Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 2.27%.

The consumer confidence index in France declined slightly by 1 point to a reading of 99 in January.

Economics

The US goods trade deficit widened to a record high of $101 billion in December from a revised $ 98 billion gap in the previous month.

Wholesale inventories rose 2.1% month-over-month to $789.4 billion in December.

New home sales climbed by 11.9% from a month ago to an annual rate of 811 thousand in December.

US crude-oil inventories increased 2.4 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady during its recent meeting. The Fed, however, said it will soon be appropriate to raise Fed Funds rate.