Mid-Day Market Update: Copart Rises On Earnings Beat; Sunshine Heart Shares Slide

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.14 percent to 23,557.08 while the NASDAQ declined 0.02 percent to 6,861.00. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.07 percent to 2,597.09.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Wednesday, the energy sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from SM Energy Co SM and W&T Offshore, Inc. WTI.

In trading on Wednesday, technology shares fell 0.11 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included HP Inc HPQ, down 7 percent, and iRobot Corporation IRBT down 8 percent.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Wednesday.

Deere reported Q4 earnings of $1.57 per share on revenue of $8.018 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $1.47 per share on sales of $7.05 billion.

Deere expects FY18 net income of $2.6 billion and equipment sales to rise 22 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Cleantech Solutions International Inc CLNT shares shot up 125 percent to $10.02 after the company disclosed that its subsidiary Vantage Ultimate Limited, entered into a conditional share swap deal to buy 51 percent interest in Marvel's issued share capital of Integrated Media Technology.

Shares of Eltek Ltd. ELTK got a boost, shooting up 82 percent to $6.55. Eltek’s 1-for-5 reverse stock split took place today.

Copart, Inc. CPRT shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $40.85 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sunshine Heart Inc CHFS shares dropped 44 percent to $4.40. CHF Solutions priced public offering of convertible preferred stock and warrants for gross proceeds of $18 million.

Shares of Rand Logistics, Inc. RLOG were down 25 percent to $0.439 following deal to be purchased by American Industrial Partners.

Guess?, Inc. GES was down, falling around 13 percent to $15.65. Guess? reported in-line earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates. U.S. comps were down 10 percent.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.60 percent to $57.74 while gold traded up 0.55 percent to $1,293.30.

Silver traded up 0.87 percent Wednesday to $17.21, while copper rose 0.43 percent to $3.164.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 surged 0.12 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.68 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.33 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.49 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.22 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.36 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders declined 1.7 percent for October, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent growth

U.S. initial weekly jobless claims dropped 13,000 to 239,000 in the latest week. However, economists were projecting claims to reach 240,000 last week.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 98.50 in November, versus prior reading of 97.80. Economists projected a reading of 98.00.

Domestic crude supplies dropped 1.85 million barrels for the week ended November 17, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a fall of 1.54 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles gained 44.000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose 269,000 barrels last week.

The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.