Dow Gains Over 150 Points; Morgan Stanley Profit Tops Views

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 150 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.31% to 52,670.85 while the NASDAQ rose 0.71% to 26,291.06 The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.43% to 7,576.95.

Leading and Lagging Sectors Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 1.3% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, health care stocks fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ) reported upbeat earnings for the second quarter on Wednesday.

The company posted quarterly earnings of $3.46 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.91 per share.

The company reported quarterly sales of $21.348 billion which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $19.637 billion.

Equities Trading UP Sobr Safe Inc (NASDAQ: SOBR ) shares shot up 53% to $1.80.

Shares of Ernexa Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: ERNA ) got a boost, surging 61% to $9.77.

Ernexa Therapeutics received independent validation of ERNA-101 with complete tumor clearance and durable survival in ovarian cancer models ahead of planned clinical entry.

Aehr Test Systems ( NASDAQ: AEHR ) shares were also up, gaining 45% to $104.28 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results and issued FY27 sales guidance above estimates.

Equities Trading DOWN Cardiff Oncology Inc ( NASDAQ: CRDF ) shares dropped 32% to $0.89 after the company announced a $10 million offering of 8,571,429 shares of its common stock and accompanying warrants at $1.05 per share and accompanying warrant.

Shares of Vivakor inc ( NASDAQ: VIVK ) were down 29% to $0.21 after the company announced a 1-for-20 reverse stock split.

Lion Group Holding Ltd – ADR (NASDAQ: LGHL ) was down, falling 29% to $1.71.

Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $80.16 while gold traded up 0.1% at $4,070.80.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $58.865 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.3% to $6.4000.

Euro zone European shares were mixed today.

The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.4%.

London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1%, Germany’s DAX declined 0.5%, while France’s CAC 40 rose 0.2%.

Asia Pacific Markets Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.49%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rising 1.40%, China’s Shanghai Composite falling 0.29% and India’s BSE Sensex gaining 0.17%.

Economics The New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing index rose 10 points to a reading of 15.6 in July.

U.S. producer prices fell 0.3% month-over-month in June, compared to a revised 0.6% gain in May and compared to market estimates of a flat reading.

The volume of mortgage applications declined by 2.7% from the previous week during the week to July 10.

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