Mid-Day Market Update: Electronics for Imaging Drops On Lowered Guidance; Mercer International Shares Surge

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.51 percent to 24,188.57 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.33 percent to 7,046.71. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.3 percent to 2,618.22.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Wednesday, the financial shares rose 1.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Plumas Bancorp PLBC up 7 percent, and Bank of America Corp BAC up 6 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.6 percent.

Top Headline

Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Goldman Sachs said it earned $6.04 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $8.08 billion versus expectations of $5.61 per share on revenue of $7.78 billion. The adjusted earnings print came in at 4.83 per share, ahead of Bloomberg's $5.53 estimate.

Net earnings for the quarter improved from a loss of $1.928 billion in the same quarter last year to $2.538 billion although last year's results were impacted by tax reform.

Equities Trading UP

First Data Corp FDC shares got a boost, shooting up 18 percent to $20.69 after Fiserv Inc FISV announced plans to buy the company in an all-stock transaction for equity value of $22 billion.

Shares of ToughBuilt Industries, Inc. TBLT shot up 221 percent to $4.01 after the company announced it launched sales with Menards.

Mercer International Inc. MERC shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $13.63. Mercer International will replace Green Dot in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Friday, January 18.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aptinyx Inc. APTX shares dropped 71 percent to $5.18 after the company's phase 2 clinical study of NYX-2925 missed its primary endpoint.

Shares of Electronics for Imaging, Inc. EFII were down 16 percent to $22.74 after the company lowered its guidance for the quarter.

Snap Inc. SNAP was down, falling around 11 percent to $5.80 after CFO Tim Stone announced intention to resign.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.96 percent to $51.61 while gold traded up 0.44 percent to $1,294.10.

Silver traded up 0.19 percent Wednesday to $15.65, while copper rose 0.97 percent to $2.66.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.52 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.48 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.33 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.34 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.5 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.45 percent.

Economics

U.S. import price index declined 1 percent in December, following a 1.9 percent fall in the previous month.

The NAHB housing market index increased 2 points to a reading of 58 in January.

Domestic crude supplies fell 2.7 million barrels for the week ended January 11, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a drop of 250,000 barrels. Gasoline stockpiles gained 7.5 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles climbed 3 million barrels last week.

The Federal Reserve will release its latest Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The Treasury International Capital report for November is schedule for release at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak in New York, NY at 6:30 p.m. ET.