Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Lower; Finish Line Misses Q3 Expectations

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.07 percent to 19,960.55 while the NASDAQ declined 0.10 percent to 5,478.21. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.11 percent to 2,268.20.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained around 0.70 percent in trading on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, industrial shares slipped by 0.20 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Lindsay Corporation LNN, down 10 percent, and Accenture Plc ACN, down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Finish Line Inc FINL reported weaker-than-expected results for its fiscal third quarter and issued a downbeat forecast.

Finish Line said it lost $0.24 per share in the third quarter on revenue of $371.7 million. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to lose just $0.18 per share on revenue of $411 million.

For the full fiscal year ending February 25, 2017, Finish Line expects its comparable store sales to be as high as 1 percent and as low as flat. The company also expects to earn between $0.68 and $0.73 per share which is below Wall Street's expectations of $0.95 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Merus NV MRUS shares shot up 41 percent to $20.00. Incyte Corporation INCY and Merus announced a global strategic research collaboration to discover and develop bispecific antibodies.

Shares of Calithera Biosciences Inc CALA got a boost, shooting up 39 percent to $4.25. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY and Calithera Biosciences disclosed a clinical collaboration to evaluate Opdivo in combination with CB-839 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

InvenSense Inc INVN shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $12.74 after TDK Corp announced plans to acquire InvenSense for $13 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

xG Technology Inc XGTI shares dropped 56 percent to $1.60 after the company reported the pricing of its $10 million offering.

Shares of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc MACK were down 16 percent to $4.53 after the company announced that it will stop a Phase 2 study of its treatment to fight breast cancer.

Long Island Iced Tea Corp LTEA was down, falling around 16 percent to $4.00. Long Island Iced Tea priced an underwritten public offering of 399,050 shares at $4.00 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.34 percent to $53.48 while gold traded up 0.29 percent to $1,136.90.

Silver traded up 0.17 percent Wednesday to $16.15, while copper rose 0.50 percent to $2.52.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.27 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.79 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.47 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.46 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.15 percent.

Economics

The MBA’s index of mortgage application activity rose 2.5 percent for the latest week.

Data on existing home sales for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.