Wall Street fades to flat by midday

12:40pm: Cruise companies continue to make gains

The Dow sank over the course of the morning from positive territory to 64 points down, 0.2%, at 33,366 at midday. The Nasdaq, which opened lower and briefly hopped into the green, was down 22 points, 0.2%, at 13,676, and the S&P 500 ticked down 3 points to 4,071.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) and Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE:CCL) both continued their strong weeks as traders jumped into reopening plays. Shares of both were up more than 1.4%.

10:40am: Proactive North America headlines:

BioHarvest Sciences Inc (CSE:BHSC) (OTCMKTS:CNVCF) (FRA:8MV) delivers record 1Q sales for its flagship functional food product VINIA in Israel

AIM ImmunoTech Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:AIM) reports no serious adverse events in dosing of Cohort 1 in Phase 1 study of Ampligen drug’s safety as an intranasal therapy

Great Panther Mining Limited (TSE:GPR) (NYSEAMERICAN:GPL) reveals promising new open pit drill results from its Tucano gold operation in Brazil

DGTL Holdings Inc (CVE:DGTL) (OTCQB:DGTHF) (FRA:A2QB0L) subsidiary Hashoff wins PGA Masters social media content campaign for Nasdaq company

Organic Garage Ltd (CVE:OG) (OTCQX:OGGFF) (FRA:9CW1) expands its Hand-Picked Partner program to include baked goods and sushi

GGX Gold Corp (CVE:GGX) (OTCQB:GGXXF) (FRA:3SR2) posts “significant results” from drilling at Perky vein, Gold Drop property

Exro Technologies Inc (CVE:EXRO) (OTCQB:EXROF) (FRA:1O2)  touts C$48M war chest to advance Coil Driver commercialization in 2020 results

Renforth Resources’ Inc (CSE:RFR) (OTCPINK:RFHRF) (FRA:9RR) latest drill results from 2020 program at Parbec expected to positively impact resource estimate

Else Nutrition Holdings Inc (CVE:BABY) (OTCQX:BABYF) (FRA:0YL) set to launch its plant-based products in the US northeast

Bragg Gaming Group Inc (TSX:BRAG) (OTCMKTS:BRGGF) (FRA:SL4A) strengthens Spanish presence with launch of ORYX Gaming on Casumo

Empower Clinics Inc (CSE:CBDT) (FRA:8EC) (OTCQB:EPWCF) sees patient numbers soar year-over-year in Q1 treatment data

Versus Systems Inc (NASDAQ:VS) (CSE:VS) (FRA:BMVB) adds new functionality to prizing platform for the UK market

Loop Insights Inc (CVE:MTRX) (OTCQB:RACMF) completes its integration with Vend’s Billing API

Talon Metals  Corp (TSE:TLO) (OTCMKTS:TLOFF) (FRA:TAO) seeing promising nickel mineralization at previously undrilled target on the Tamarack nickel project

OTC Markets Group Inc (OTCQX:OTCM) says Tiger Broker, a leading online stock brokerage in Asia has become a new distributor of its Real-Time Level 2+ Quotes

CytoDyn Inc (OTCQB:CYDY) inks exclusive supply and distribution agreement for leronlimab in Brazil with Biomm SA

Ximen Mining Corp (CVE:XIM) (OTCQB:XXMMF) (FRA:1XMA) further expands footprint in Greenwood camp as it acquires royalty on Sidley gold-Dayton copper properties

9.35am: Wall Street opens on a softer note

Wall Street opened on a softer note on Wednesday, with the main indices trading mixed in the first minutes of the session.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.16% at 33,482 while the S&P 500 rose 0.07% to 4,076 and the Nasdaq fell 0.13% to 13,680.

Investors appear to be awaiting for the latest batch of Fed minutes before making a decision on which direction to take, particularly with yields in US Treasuries having caused some headaches for equities markets in previous weeks.

8:00am: Wall Street to see muted start

The main indices on Wall Street are expected to open fairly flat on Wednesday as investors await the minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting on March 17. The statement from the Fed’s open market committee at the time included a revised growth forecast but suggested no interest rate rises until 2023.

Sophie Griffiths, market analyst at OANDA, said: “Looking ahead to the US open, futures are pointing to a muted open ahead of the minutes from the latest FOMC meeting… Whilst US treasury yields are trending lower today, any sense of a more hawkish Fed could reignite the bond market rout which dominated in the first three months of the year.”

Neil Wilson at Markets.com said: “The minutes could help explain how the Fed plans to communicate future policy decisions and shed light on how some policymakers could change their view on monetary policy if inflation and growth does accelerate as expected this summer.

“Whilst [Fed chair] Jay Powell has kept market speculation at bay, the minutes could allow participants to focus on when the Fed will tighten. As detailed after the meeting statement, it looks as though the Fed is happy to let the economy run hot and won’t intervene to cool it down. Even with growth in excess of 6.5% this year, 3% in 2022 and 2% in 2023; it still sees no need to tighten policy within the next almost three years…

“It also doesn’t really think the sharp bounce back this year is sustainable, meaning now is not the time to remove the punchbowl. US 10-year yields have retreated to under 1.64% – given the pullback from the recent highs there is a risk the market sees something in the minutes which signals it could tighten policy sooner than it is currently guiding.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is forecast to open up around 17 points or 0.04% while the S&P 500 is expected to edge up 0.02% and the Nasdaq Composite make a flat start.

Four things to watch for on Wednesday:

• Companies in the earnings diary for mid-week include coating and sealants maker RPM International Inc (NYSE:RPM), frozen french fries maker Lamb Weston Holdings Inc (NYSE:LW) and steelmaker Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc (NASDAQ:SCHN)
• Shares in Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) may draw some attention after its founder and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos backed an increase in corporate tax rates
• Meanwhile, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), run by world’s second richest man Elon Musk, could also be in focus after it emerged that Musk’s brother Kimbal pocketed more than US$7mln from stock trades in the electric car maker using options
• On the macro front, aside from the Fed minutes, investors will be keeping an eye on US trade balance data

Story by ProactiveInvestors