Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Drops Over 3%; Sunedison Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.23 percent to 17,681.19 while the NASDAQ dipped 0.34 percent to 5,090.62. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.32 percent to 2,071.76. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Wednesday, healthcare shares slipped by just 0.16 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Concord Medical Services Hldg Ltd (ADR) CCM, Alimera Sciences Inc ALIM, and ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. ZIOP. In trading on Wednesday, energy shares dipped by 1.27 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Cloud Peak Energy Inc. CLD, down 7 percent, and Baytex Energy Corp (USA) BTE, down 7 percent. Top Headline Fairchild Semiconductor Intl Inc FCS confirmed the receipt of a revised unsolicited proposal. On November 18, Fairchild entered into an agreement and plan of merger with a subsidiary of ON Semiconductor Corp ON. As part of the initial terms, the company would acquire all outstanding shares of Fairchild for $20 per share in cash. Fairchild acknowledged on Tuesday receipt of a revised, unsolicited proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Fairchild for $21.70 per share in cash. Equities Trading UP Weight Watchers International, Inc. WTW shares shot up 19 percent to $23.14. Over the past three months, shares of Weight Watchers International have gained more than 200 percent in large part due to media mogul Oprah Winfrey's decision to buy a 10 percent stake in the company. Shares of Fairchild Semiconductor Intl Inc FCS got a boost, shooting up 3 percent to $20.67. Fairchild Semiconductor reported in a filing Tuesday, that on December 28, 2015, the company received a revised, unsolicited proposal from Party G Group to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Fairchild for $21.70 per share in cash. Sunedison Inc SUNE shares were also up, gaining 5 percent to $5.25 after the company reported a deal to extinguish $336 million of '20 exchangeable notes. Equities Trading DOWN Neurometrix Inc NURO shares dropped 15 percent to $1.97 after the company reported a $13.8 million at the market private placement of preferred stock and warrants. Shares of Memorial Production Partners LP MEMP were down 12 percent to $2.13. Morgan Stanley downgraded Memorial Production from Overweight to Equal-weight and lowered the price target from $8 to $6. Vanguard Natural Resources, LLC VNR was down, falling around 6 percent to $2.94. Analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded Vanguard Natural from Overweight to Equal-weight and lowered the price target from $11 to $7. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 3.09 percent to $36.70, while gold traded down 0.72 percent to $1,060.30. Silver traded down 0.60 percent Wednesday to $13.85, while copper rose 0.23 percent to $2.14. Eurozone European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 0.54 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.29 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.12 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.08 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.52 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.64 percent. Economics The pending home sales index slipped 0.9 percent in November, versus economists' expectations for a 0.5 percent growth. Data on farm prices for December will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.