Mid-Day Market Update: Shopify Surges Following Strong Q4 Results; Bed Bath & Beyond Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.73% to 29490.80 while the NASDAQ rose 0.42% to 9679.83. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.45% to 3,372.74.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Noble Corporation plc NE, up 33%, and Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. OSG, up 11%.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

CVS Health Corp CVS reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

CVS Health reported quarterly earnings of $1.73 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.68. The company reported quarterly sales of $66.9 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $63.97 billion.

CVS said it expects FY20 adjusted earnings of $7.04 to $7.17 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $7.15 per share.

Equities Trading UP

ACCO Brands Corporation ACCO shares shot up 16% to $10.67 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results.

Shares of Computer Programs and Systems, Inc. CPSI got a boost, shooting 17% to $32.55 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

Shopify Inc. SHOP shares were also up, gaining 13% to $555.00 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued upbeat FY20 guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

PolarityTE, Inc. PTE shares tumbled 46% to $1.7050 after the company priced public offering of stock and warrants.

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY were down 24% to $11.28 as the company gave a bleak outlook in its preliminary report for the fourth quarter of the 2019 financial year. Bed Bath & Beyond also said that the same-store sales declined 5.4% in December 2019 and January 2020, the first two months of its fiscal fourth quarter of the year.

Zosano Pharma Corporation ZSAN was down, falling 48% to $0.5394 after the company priced 10.146 million unit offering at $0.65 per unit.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.2% to $51.06, while gold traded down 0.1% to $ 1,569.40.

Silver traded down 0.7% Wednesday to $17.475, while copper rose 0.7% to $2.602.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.56%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.57%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.69% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.84%, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.72% while UK shares rose 0.43%.

Economics

U.S. crude supplies climbed 7.5 million barrels for the week ended February 7, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a gain of 2.3 million barrels. Gasoline supplies fell 100,000 barrels, while distillate stocks slipped 2 million barrels last week.

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

The U.S. Treasury budget report for January will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.