Mid-Day Market Update: Barracuda Networks Surges On Earnings Beat; Fortinet Shares Slide

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.12 percent to 18,150.47 while the NASDAQ gained 0.02 percent to 5,247.80. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.14 percent 2,139.81.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Wednesday, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained by 0.38 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 0.58 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. HOS, down 7 percent, and BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust BPT, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Newell Brands Inc NWL disclosed a definitive agreement with Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. SWK to divest its tools unit for about $1.95 billion.

The companies expect the transaction to be completed in the first half of next year subject to regulatory approvals.

Newell Brands indicated that the sale proceeds would be utilized to pay down its debt in line with the objective of achieving a 3–3.5 times EBITDA leverage ratio before the year 2018 ends.

Equities Trading UP

VOXX International Corp VOXX shares shot up 29 percent to $3.30. VOXX reported Q2 earnings of $0.12 per share on sales of $159.3 million.

Shares of HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc HTGM got a boost, shooting up 53 percent to $3.46. HTG Molecular Diagnostics and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany disclosed that they have entered into a master companion diagnostics agreement.

Barracuda Networks Inc CUDA shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $26.27 after the company posted stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter on Tuesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson ERIC shares dropped 21 percent to $5.57 after the company issued a profit warning for the third quarter.

Shares of Fortinet Inc FTNT were down 12 percent to $30.02 after the company lowered its outlook for the third quarter on Tuesday.

IEC Electronics Corp IEC was down, falling around 19 percent to $4.14. IEC Electronics confirmed workforce reduction of 73 employees.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.09 percent to $50.68 while gold traded down 0.18 percent to $1,253.60.

Silver traded down 0.19 percent Wednesday to $17.48, while copper fell 0.05 percent to $2.18.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.38 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.07 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.51 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.42 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.65 percent.

Economics

Job openings dropped to 5.44 million in August, according to government data. However, economists were expecting job opening to reach 5.72 million in the month.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 10-year notes at 1:00 a.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.