Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Down 3%

Shares of biopharmaceutical company Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AUPH) are down 3 percent on Wednesday’s trading despite there being no company news to impact the stock.

Aurinia is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on delivering therapies to treat targeted patient populations that are impacted by serious diseases with a high unmet medical need. In January 2021, the company introduced the first FDA-approved oral therapy indicated for the treatment of adult patients with active lupus nephritis.

Currently at $22.58, the stock has traded between $9.72 and $33.97 during the past 52 weeks.

European Economics Preview: Germany Import Price Data Due

Import price data from Germany is due on Thursday, headlining a light day for the European economic news.

At 2.00 am ET, Destatis releases Germany’s import prices for November. Economists forecast import price inflation to ease to 19.6 percent from 21.7 percent in October.

At 3.00 am ET, Spain’s INE is scheduled to issue revised third quarter GDP data. The statistical office is expected to confirm 2 percent sequential growth.

At 4.00 am ET, consumer and business confidence survey results are due from Italy. In the meantime, unemployment data is due from Poland.

At 5.00 am ET, the Hellenic Statistical Authority is set to publish Greece’s quarterly unemployment data.

Apple Rewards Engineers With Stock Bonuses To Prevent Them From Switching To Meta: Reports

Tech giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) is reportedly giving stock bonuses to some engineers as an effort to prevent them from switching to other tech companies, like Meta.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple informed select engineers in silicon design, hardware, software, and operations that they would receive stock bonuses of between $50,000 and $180,000. The bonuses were presented by managers as a reward for high performers.

The stock bonuses given out by Apple are not part of normal payment packages, which include a base salary, stock units and a cash bonus.

The report says that Apple and Facebook-owner Meta are battling for top talent in the silicon valley. Meta poached nearly 100 engineers from Apple in the last few months, while Apple also recruited several key Meta employees.

Meta is recruiting from Apple’s augmented reality, AI, and engineering divisions, as the company plans to launch a smart watch in the coming years that will directly compete with the Apple Watch. Meanwhile, Apple is prepping to launch its own AR/VR headset, which will compete with the Meta-owned Oculus virtual reality headsets.

In October, reports said that Meta was planning to hire 10,000 engineers to build Mark Zuckerberg’s version of the metaverse.

Cal-Maine Foods Slips 6% As Q2 Profit Misses Street View

Shares of Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (CALM) slipped nearly 6% on Wednesday morning after the company reported second-quarter results, with earnings missing Street view, but revenues exceeding expectations.

CALM is currently trading at $36.17, down $2.13 or 5.56%, on the Nasdaq.

Second-quarter sales increased 12.5 percent to $390.9 million from $347.3 million last year. The company reported profit of $1.2 million or $0.02 per share, compared to net income of $12.2 million or $0.25 per share last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.28 per share on revenues of $387.77 million for the quarter.

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. is primarily engaged in the production, grading, packing, marketing and distribution of fresh shell eggs, including conventional, cage-free, organic, free-range, pasture-raised and nutritionally enhanced eggs.

Pop Culture Group Continues Rally

Pop Culture Group Co., Ltd (CPOP) shares are gaining more than 20 percent on Wednesday morning trade continuing an uptick. There were no corporate announcements on the day to impact the stock movement.

The shares are currently at $2.75, up 19.69 percent from the previous close of $2.31 on a volume of 46,845,452. For the 52-week period, the shares have traded in a range of $1.57-$78.00 on average volume of 1,700,856.

Gold Prices Show Modest Move Back To The Downside

After ending the previous session modestly higher, the price of gold moved back to the downside during trading on Wednesday.

Gold for February delivery edged down $5.10 or 0.3 percent to $1,805.80 an ounce after inching up $2.10 or 0.1 percent to $1,810.90 an ounce on Tuesday.

The slight pullback by the price of the precious metal came as concerns about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus have continued to ease, reducing the appeal of safe haven assets like gold.

While the Omicron variant has contributed to a surge in new coronavirus cases around the world, traders seem optimistic that the milder symptoms associated with the new strain will not lead to a significant economic slowdown.

Gold prices moved lower even though the value of the U.S. dollar has also dipped on the day, with the U.S. dollar index slipping by 0.3 percent to 95.94.

On the U.S. economic front, a report released by the National Association of Realtors showed an unexpected pullback in pending home sales in the month of November.

NAR said its pending home sales index slid 2.2 percent to 122.4 in November after spiking 7.5 percent to 125.2 in October. The decrease surprised economists, who had expected pending home sales to rise by 0.5 percent.

A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

Western Digital Stock Gains 6%

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (WDC) are gaining over 6% on Wednesday morning despite no stock-related news to drive the company’s shares.

WDC is currently trading at $66.58, up $3.74 or 5.96%, on the Nasdaq. The stock has traded between $48.28 and $78.19 in the 52 week period.

Western Digital Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, and internationally.