Global investors on Wednesday digested new data, policy statements, and earnings reports. In Europe, the British FTSE slipped 0.33%, the German DAX slipped 0.33%, the French CAC edged down 0.19%, and the broader STOXX 600 index dipped 0.36%. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) slipped 0.74%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) was flat, and the broad S&P 500 (.INX) index dipped 0.51%.
Among US stocks in the S&P 500, the biggest losers today were led by pest control firm Rollins (NYSE: ROL), which fell 10.81% at the close due to a mixed earnings report where it missed earnings estimate and beat revenue estimates. The other biggest losers were social media firm Twitter (NASDAQ: TWTR), down 10.78%, financial services and technology firm Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV), down 10.02%, technology firm Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN), down 8.79%, and financial technology firm Global Payments (NYSE: GPN), down 7.59%.
The biggest gainers were led by solar energy firm Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH), up 24.65% on a massive earnings beat. The other biggest gainers were networking firm Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR), up 8.48%, test equipment firm Teradyne (NYSE: TER), up 6.88%, networking firm F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV), up 5.94%, and semiconductor firm Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX), up 5.22%. Among COVID plays, shares of vaccine maker Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) jumped 4.86%, while German biotech firm BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) ADR shares fell 4.66%. In fixed income markets, US Treasury bond yields were largely unchanged.
In commodities markets, as of press time, the price of international Brent crude oil slipped 3.05%, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil dipped 2.72% after the Energy Information Administration reported total domestic gasoline stocks declined 5.4 million barrels per day to 217.7 million. US natural gas futures jumped 5.76%, supported by forecasts for colder winter weather in several regions. The price of gold futures edged up 0.27%, silver eked up 0.15%, platinum dipped 1.97%, palladium slipped 2.16%, and copper slipped 2.18%. Also, coffee futures fell 3.65%, while corn futures climbed 2.62%. In crypto asset markets, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell 4.9% in a mild correction from recent record highs. Other major coins followed, as Ether (ETH) fell 6.3%, Binance Coin (BNB) tumbled 6.6%, Cardano (ADA) plunged 10.8%, and Solana (SOL) tumbled 7.9%.