Mid-Afternoon Market Update: NASDAQ Down 0.5%; China Recycling Energy Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.19 percent to 24,744.70 while the NASDAQ declined 0.55 percent to 6,956.15. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.26 percent to 2,683.25.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector proved to be a source of strength for the market.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 0.86 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included PPL Corp PPL, down 4 percent, and Connecticut Water Service Inc CTWS down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Darden reported Q2 earnings of $0.73 per share on revenue of $1.88 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.70 per share on revenue of $1.85 billion.

Darden raised its FY 2018 earnings guidance from $4.38-$4.50 per share, to $4.45-$4.53 per share.

Equities Trading UP

China Recycling Energy Corp. CREG shares shot up 15 percent to $3.15 following news of an energy storage development cooperation contract with Shanghai Electric and Fujian Tongyong.

Shares of Pfenex Inc PFNX got a boost, shooting up 65 percent to $3.44. Pfenex earned $18.5 million in milestones and updated worldwide license and option agreement with Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Tyme Technologies Inc TYME shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $5.05. Tyme will present efficacy data on SM-88 in pancreatic cancer at the 2018 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Equities Trading DOWN

Yield10 Bioscience Inc YTEN shares dropped 26 percent to $2.10 after the company reported pricing of its $12.6 million underwritten public offering.

Shares of ImmuCell Corporation ICCC were down 15 percent to $7.55. ImmuCell priced its $3 million offering at $7.30 per share.

McDermott International Inc MDR was down, falling around 9 percent to $6.93. McDermott and Chicago Bridge & Iron announced plans to combine in a $6 billion deal.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5 percent to $57.45 while gold traded down 0.21 percent to $1,262.90.

Silver traded down 0.56 percent Tuesday to $16.115, while copper rose 0.27 percent to $3.1545.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.42 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.10 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.52 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.72 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 0.69 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.09 percent.

Economics

U.S. housing starts rose 3.3 percent to an annual rate of 1.297 million in November. Economists were expecting a 1.27 million annual rate.

U.S. current account deficit dropped 19 percent to $100.6 billion in the third quarter.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index declined 0.4 percent during the first three weeks of December versus November.