Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Go Red, SAIC Profit Beats Estimates

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.60 percent to 14,472.87 while the NASDAQ dropped 0.54 percent to 3,234.76. The S&P also fell, declining 0.58 percent to 1,554.69.

Yesterday, SAIC

posted upbeat fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and also declared a special cash dividend of $1 per share. SAIC projected FY14 adjusted earnings of $1.16 to $1.33 per share on revenue of $10 billion to $10.7 billion. However, analysts projected earnings of $1.27 per share on revenue of $10.81 billion. SAIC's quarterly net income came in at $186 million, or $0.54 per share, versus a year-earlier loss of $161 million, or $0.49 per share. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.52 per share. Its revenue climbed to $2.71 billion from $2.47 billion.

Mattress Firm Holding

shot up 6.71 percent to $33.10 after analysts at Raymond James upgraded the stock from “market perform” to “outperform.” Shares of SAIC

got a boost, shooting up 5.07 percent to $13.47 after the company posted upbeat fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. AOL

was also up, gaining 6.76 percent to $5.24 after analysts at Barclays upgraded the stock from “equal weight” to “overweight.”

Cliffs Natural Resources

shares tumbled 12.13 percent to $18.83 after analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from “equal weight” to “underweight.” Francesca's Holdings

was also down, falling 5.44 percent to $28.51 after the company announced secondary offering of 7,394,727 shares of common stock. Shares of AEGON NV

were down 3.91 percent to $5.8901. Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from “neutral” to “conviction buy.”

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.57 percent to $95.79, while gold traded up 0.33 percent to $1,602.50. Silver traded down 1.29 percent Wednesday to $28.31, while copper fell 0.33 percent to $3.43.

European shares were lower on some weak economic data. British fourth quarter GDP fell 0.3 percent, in line with estimates, marking an official triple-dip recession for the U.K. France's fourth quarter GDP also fell 0.3 percent, which was also in line with estimates. The Spanish Ibex Index tumbled 1.79 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.65 percent. The STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 0.90 percent, London's FTSE 100 Index fell 0.70 percent, French CAC 40 Index tumbled 1.56 percent and German DAX 30 index dipped 1.46 percent.

The MBA adjusted index of mortgage application activity climbed 7.7% in the week ended March 22. Pending home sales fell 0.4% in February. The pending-home-sales index dropped to 104.8 in February, versus 105.2 in January. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans is set to speak and the Treasury is set to auction 5-year notes.