Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 200 Points; First Data Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.84 percent to 24,266.70 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.39 percent to 7,050.86. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.50 percent to 2,623.38.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the financial shares rose 2.5 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included 360 Finance Inc QFIN up 9 percent, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS up 8 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.7 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 20 percent to $21.12 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 186 percent to $3.5711 after the company announced it launched sales with Menards.

Aileron Therapeutics Inc ALRN shares were also up, gaining 39 percent to $1.59 after the company began enrollment in its Phase 2 ALRN-6924 cohort in cancer patients.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aptinyx Inc. APTX shares dropped 72 percent to $5.01 after the company's phase 2 clinical study of NYX-2925 missed its primary endpoint.

Shares of Electronics for Imaging, Inc. EFII were down 19 percent to $22.15 after the company lowered its guidance for the quarter.

Snap Inc. SNAP was down, falling around 12 percent to $5.74 after CFO Tim Stone resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.77 percent to $51.71 while gold traded up 0.43 percent to $1,293.90.

Silver traded up 0.03 percent Wednesday to $15.625, while copper rose 1.35 percent to $2.67.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.54 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.71 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.63 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.36 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.51 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.47 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 released its Beige Book report.

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.