U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite falling around 50 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.27% to 34,547.44 while the NASDAQ fell 0.36% to 13,970.92. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.34% to 4,481.74.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 0.5% on Wednesday. In trading on Wednesday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 0.7%.

Top Headline

The U.S. trade deficit widened to $65 billion in July versus a revised $63.7 billion in the prior month, and compared to market expectations for a $68 billion gap.

Exports rose 1.6% to a four-month high level of $251.7 billion, while imports rose 1.7% to $316.7 billion in July.

Equities Trading UP

Palisade Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALI) shares shot up 131% to $1.59. Palisade Bio transformed GI-focused pipeline through exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Giiant Pharma, Inc. for multiple oral drug candidates targeting inflammatory bowel disease.

Shares of FOXO Technologies Inc. (NYSE:FOXO) got a boost, shooting 49% to $0.2127 after the company's FOXO LIFE subsidiary announced an agreement with Atrio, expanding its distribution through Atrio/Singular's sales network.

iCoreConnect Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCT) shares were also up, gaining 43% to $9.62. iCoreConnect announced new version of its iCoreExchange encrypted HIPAA email and referral network.

Equities Trading DOWN

EZGO Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:EZGO) shares dropped 70% to $0.5327 after the company reported pricing of $10 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Verb Technology Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERB) were down 32% to $2.19. Verb Technology Company shares jumped 347% on Tuesday after the completed and launched a technology integration and strategic relationship with global social media platform TikTok.

Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) was down, falling 23% to $21.25. Bed Bath & Beyond, operated by Overstock.com, issued an update on its third-quarter performance.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $86.81 while gold traded down 0.2% at $1,949.30.

Silver traded down 1.5% to $23.52 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.7% to $3.82.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.5% London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.8% The German DAX slipped 0.1% French CAC 40 fell 0.8%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1%.

Retail sales in the Eurozone fell by 0.2% month-over-month in July following a revised 0.2% growth in June, while Eurozone construction PMI fell to 43.4 in August from July’s reading of 43.5.

The S&P Global France construction PMI declined to 42.4 in August from 42.9 a month ago, while German construction PMI rose to 41.5 from 41. The S&P Global/CIPS UK construction PMI fell to 50.8 in August from 51.7 in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.62%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.04% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.12%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.1%.

The Australian economy grew by 0.4% quarter-over-quarter during the second quarter of the year, while Ai Group Australian Industry Index rose by 3.1 points to a reading of -11.6 in August.

Economics

U.S. mortgage applications declined 2.9% in the week ending Sept. 1, 2023, following a 2.3% increase in the prior week.

The U.S. trade deficit widened to $65 billion in July versus a revised $63.7 billion in the prior month, and compared to market expectations for a $68 billion gap.

Exports rose 1.6% to a four-month high level of $251.7 billion, while imports rose 1.7% to $316.7 billion in July.

The S&P Global services PMI was revised lower to 50.5 in August versus a preliminary level of 51.

The S&P Global composite PMI was revised lower to 50.2 in August versus a preliminary reading of 50.4 and compared to the earlier month's reading of 52.0.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 108,192,020 cases with around 1,174,290 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,997,320 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 694,933,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,912,570 deaths.