Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; CVS Health Issues Weak Earnings Outlook

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.01 percent to 25,889.73 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.1 percent to 7,497.51. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03 percent to 2,778.93.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the materials shares climbed 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Summit Materials, Inc. SUM up 5 percent, and Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited HMY up 6 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell 0.4 percent.

Top Headline

CVS Health Corp CVS issued weak earnings forecast for FY19. The company reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed view.

CVS Health said it earned $2.14 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $54.42 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $2.05 per share and revenue of $54.58 billion.

CVS Health expects FY19 adjusted earnings of $6.68 to $6.88 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $7.41 per share.

Equities Trading UP

ARCA biopharma, Inc. ABIO shares got a boost, shooting up 80 percent to $0.695 after the company announced an agreement with the FDA for a single Phase 3 clinical trial to support approval for its Cardiovascular drug.

Shares of Kandi Technologies Group, Inc. KNDI shot up 36 percent to $8.07 after the company reported NHTSA approval of 2 electric vehicle models.

OneSpan Inc. OSPN shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $19.80 after the company reported upbeat Q4 results.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Ovid Therapeutics Inc. OVID shares dropped 30 percent to $1.80 after reporting pricing of $30 million of securities in concurrent public offerings of common and preferred stock.

Shares of Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. SNNA were down 21 percent to $2.3566 after the company priced an 8 million share stock offering at $2.50 per share.

Owens & Minor, Inc. OMI was down, falling around 18 percent to $6.53 after the company reported downbeat Q4 earnings and issued weak 2019 earnings forecast.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7 percent to $55.72 while gold traded up 0.2 percent to $1,346.80.

Silver traded up 0.3 percent Wednesday to $16.12, while copper rose 0.1 percent to $2.8815.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.3 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.4 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.5 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.3 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.4 percent.

Economics

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

Data on farm prices for December will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.