Mid-Day Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Lower; Net Element Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.06 percent to 24,739.26 while the NASDAQ declined 0.32 percent to 6,941.83. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.13 percent to 2,678.10.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Wednesday, the basic materials sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. SCHN and Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (ADR) SID.

In trading on Wednesday, technology shares fell 0.56 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Red Hat Inc RHT, down 6 percent, and Veeco Instruments Inc. VECO down 5 percent.

Top Headline

General Mills, Inc. GIS reported in-line earnings for its second quarter, while sales exceeded estimates.

General Mills reported Q2 earnings of $0.82 per share on revenue of $4.2 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.82 per share on revenue of $4.09 billion.

General Mills expects FY18 sales growth to be flat to down 1 percent, versus its previous range of down 1 percent to 2 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Net Element International Inc NETE shares shot up 240 percent to $17.73. The fintech company announced the launch of a blockchain-focused business unit to support its electronic payment services in partnership with Bunker Capital. The “decentralized crypto-based ecosystem” is intended to directly connect merchants and consumers engaged in transactions.

Shares of Seven Stars Cloud Group Inc SSC got a boost, shooting up 25 percent to $5.40. Seven Stars announced its 27-percent stake in Delaware Board of Trade Holdings, Inc., which claims to be the first and only blockchain-based alternative trading system licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

NXT-ID Inc NXTD shares were also up, gaining 66 percent to $3.02. The firm’s wholly owned subsidiary, Fit Pay, Inc., announced it has extended partnership with Cascade Financial Technology Corp to develop a platform enabling expense of cryptocurrency at global retail sites. Their collaborative product will transfer cryptocurrency value into accepted digital payment forms.

Equities Trading DOWN

Applied DNA Sciences Inc APDN shares dropped 27 percent to $1.63. Applied DNA reported 2.735 million share offering at a combined effective price of $1.75 per share.

Shares of My Size, Inc. MYSZ were down 19 percent to $0.67. My Size reported pricing of 3.833 million share common stock offering at $0.65 per share.

Atossa Genetics Inc ATOS was down, falling around 23 percent to $0.239 after the company reported the pricing of 5.3 million share common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.02 percent to $57.57 while gold traded up 0.33 percent to $1,268.40.

Silver traded up 0.66 percent Wednesday to $16.26, while copper rose 1.21 percent to $3.1895.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.54 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.08 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.52 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.94 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 0.54 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.32 percent.

Economics

U.S. existing-home sales gained 5.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.81 million in November. However, economists were expecting a 5.54 million rate.

U.S. crude oil inventories declined 6.5 million barrels last week, the EIA reported. However, analysts projected a drop of 3.77 million barrels.