Mid-Morning Market Update: Goldman Sachs Crushes on Earnings, Research in Motion Rises on Visa Approval

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.29 percent to 13,494.20 while the NASDAQ rose 0.11 percent to 3,114.70. The S&P also fell, decreasing 0.14 percent to 1,470.25.

The financials started reporting in earnest this morning, with Goldman Sachs kicking

posting a huge earnings beat with EPS coming in at $5.60, well above the projected $3.66 per share, while revenues were reported at $9.24 billion, crushing the $7.83 billion estimates. Shares traded up a little over 2.0 percent on the news.

Genworth Financial

saw a boost in early trading, rising 9.07 percent to $8.87 after the company announced a comprehensive U.S. mortgage insurance capital plan this morning. Shares of Research in Motion

traded up 5.19 percent to $15.23 after it was announced that the company had received approval from Visa for its mobile payments offering. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

also rose, gaining 5.18 percent to $21.17 after the company priced its 8 million share public offering at $20.13.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

fell in early trading Wednesday, losing 5.05 percent to $282.32 after the company released guidance that places EPS below street estimates. Cobalt Energy

was also down, falling 6.02 percent to $25.14 after the company priced a secondary public offering, but did not disclose the price. Shares of ANN

were down as well, dropping 4.35 percent to $31.42 after a UBS note came out saying aggressive holiday promotions lead to “lukewarm” holiday results.

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.25 percent to $93.51, while gold traded down 0.33 percent to $1,678.40. Silver traded down 0.25 percent Wednesday to $31.28.

In the Euro zone this morning, shares fell, mostly pulled down by some poor Italian trade data. Leading the fall was a 1.31 percent drop in the Italian MIB index while the Spanish Ibex was close behind, falling 0.78 percent.

In economic news this morning, capacity utilization rate came in at 78.80 percent, above the projected 78.50 percent and the prior release of 78.40 percent. CPI year over year was also reported, coming in at 1.70 percent, missing the expected and previous figures of 1.80 percent, while CPI month over month came in flat at 0.0 percent, equal to expectations and above the prior report of -0.30 percent. Core CPI year over year came in at 1.90 percent, equal to estimates and the previous report while core CPI month over month was reported at 0.10 percent, below the projected 0.20 percent and equal to the previous figure. TIC net long-term transactions came out at 52.30 billion, strongly beating the expected 25.0 billion and the prior release of 1.30 billion.