Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 2%; Pacific Continental Shares Climb On Merger News

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.01 percent to 19,885.89 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.38 percent to 5,552.78. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.14 percent to 2,272.18.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Basic materials shares gained around 1.89 percent in trading on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Olympic Steel, Inc. ZEUS, and Mechel PAO (ADR) MTL.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell by 0.37 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Targa Resources Corp TRGP, down 3 percent, and FirstEnergy Corp. FE, down 2 percent.

Top Headline

Barracuda Networks Inc CUDA reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter on Monday.

Barracuda reported Q3 adjusted earnings of $0.22 per share on revenue of $88.8 million. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.14 per share on revenue of $86.6 million.

Equities Trading UP

Pacific Continental Corporation PCBK shares shot up 26 percent to $26.12 after the company announced plans to merge with Columbia Banking System Inc COLB.

Shares of Biocept Inc BIOC got a boost, shooting up 60 percent to $1.63 after the company disclosed that it has secured an in-network provider agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas.

Pioneer Power Solutions, Inc. PPSI shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $6.60 after the company issued a strong earnings forecast for 2017.

Equities Trading DOWN

hhgregg, Inc. HGG shares dropped 37 percent to $0.820. hhgregg reported preliminary Q3 revenue of $453 million.

Shares of Vince Holding Corp VNCE were down around 15 percent to $3.67. Vince Holding projects full-year sales and EPS to come in at or below the low end of its earlier issued outlook.

NanoString Technologies Inc NSTG was down, falling around 21 percent to $18.06 after the company issued weak revenue forecast for FY2016.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.08 percent to $50.88 while gold traded up 0.15 percent to $1,186.70.

Silver traded up 0.88 percent Tuesday to $16.83, while copper rose 2.90 percent to $2.61.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.11 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index declined 0.43 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.33 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.17 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.01 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.52 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index rose 7.4 points to 105.8 in December. However, economists were projecting a reading of 99.6.

U.S. job openings increased to 5.52 million in November from 5.45 million in October, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report. Economists expected job opening to drop 5.55 million.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 1 percent for November, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.90 percent growth.