Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 1%; VOXX Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.19 percent to 18,163.13 while the NASDAQ declined 0.05 percent to 5,244.06. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.22 percent 2,141.37.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, utilities shares gained by 0.83 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Genie Energy Ltd GNE, and Connecticut Water Service Inc CTWS.

In trading on Wednesday, healthcare shares fell by 0.37 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Omeros Corporation OMER, down 9 percent, and Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. SGMO, down 7 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 37 percent to $3.50. 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 37 percent to $3.10. 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 9 percent to $25.51 after the company posted stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter on Tuesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson ERIC shares dropped 20 percent to $5.59 after the company issued a profit warning for the third quarter.

Shares of Fortinet Inc FTNT were down 10 percent to $30.74 after the company lowered its outlook for the third quarter on Tuesday.

IEC Electronics Corp IEC was down, falling around 19 percent to $4.13. IEC Electronics confirmed workforce reduction of 73 employees.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.17 percent to $50.64 while gold traded up 0.01 percent to $1,256.00.

Silver traded up 0.23 percent Wednesday to $17.55, while copper fell 0.37 percent to $2.18.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.47 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.08 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.02 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.51 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.44 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.66 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 Federal Open Market Committee released minutes of its latest meeting.