Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Agios Pharma Has Wildly Successful IPO Amid Red Markets

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.31 percent to 15,520.93 while the NASDAQ dropped 0.03 percent to 3,578.54. The S&P also fell, declining 0.47 percent to 1,684.58.

Ford Motor Co

reported a rise in its second-quarter profit and lifted its view for the year. Ford's quarterly profit surged to $1.23 billion, or $0.30 per share, versus a profit of $1.04 billion, or $0.26 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, Ford earned $0.45 per share. Its revenue increased to $38.1 billion from $33.3 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.37 per share on revenue of $34.94 billion.

Following a wildly successful IPO, Agios Pharmaceuticals

rocketed upwards, gaining 68.61 percent to $30.35 towards the end of trading Wednesday. Shares of Electronic Arts

got a boost, shooting up 8.29 percent to $25.80 after the company reported narrower-than-expected Q1 loss. Apple

was also up, gaining 5.49 percent to $441.97 after the company reported upbeat quarterly results.

Shares of Broadcom

were down 14.53 percent to $27.20 after the company issued weak revenue forecast for the third quarter. Polycom

was down, falling 14.98 percent to $9.51 after the company announced the resignation of its CEO. Analysts at RBC Capital also downgraded the stock from “sector perform” to “underperform.” Sarepta Therapeutics

was also down, falling 18.63 percent to $37.79 after the FDA punted on its decision of whether or not to allow its drug to be approved for marketing to consumers this morning.

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.08 percent to $107.00, while gold traded down 1.15 percent to $1,319.80. Silver traded down 1.77 percent Wednesday to $20.13, while copper fell 0.45 percent to $3.18.

European shares were higher on better-than-expected PMI data. Eurozone PMIs strongly beat expectations in both the manufacturing and services sectors. The flash reading of the manufacturing PMI rose to 50.1 for the first half of July from 48.8 in June, beating expectations of a reading of 49.1 while the services PMI rose to 49.6 from 48.3 on expectations of a reading of 48.7. The Spanish Ibex Index surged 1.47 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index jumped 1.26 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.78 percent and the French CAC 40 gained 1.01 percent while U.K. shares climbed 0.35 percent.

The MBA's index of mortgage application activity dropped 1.2% in the week ended July 19. The US flash manufacturing PMI surged to a reading of 53.2 in July, versus 51.9 in June, Markit reported. US new home sales increased 8.3% to an annual rate of 497,000 in June. However, economists were expecting sales to rise to 483,000 in June. Crude oil supplies declined 2.8 million barrels for the week ended July 19, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a 2.5 million-barrel fall. The Treasury is set to auction 5-year notes.