Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; Delta Air Lines Earnings Top Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.02 percent to 22,835.47 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01 percent to 6,587.57. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.03 percent to 2,549.92.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares surged 0.61 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 0.24 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Old Point Financial Corporation OPOF, down 10 percent, and Independent Bank Corp INDB down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL reported upbeat results for its third quarter on Wednesday.

Delta Air posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.57 per share on revenue of $11.1 billion. However, analysts expected earnings of $1.53 per share on revenue of $11.03 billion.

Equities Trading UP

CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc CASI shares shot up 108 percent to $4.62 following disclosure company Director He Wei-Wu purchased 200,000 shares on October 5 and 6. The stock rallied 15 percent on no news during Tuesday's intraday session.

Shares of Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc HMNY got a boost, shooting up 10 percent to $30.56 continuing a 32 percent rally during Tuesday's intraday session, a 77 percent rally since Friday's close, and a nearly 125 percent rally since October 5 amid reports Netflix will be increasing prices.

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc AERI shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $62.56 following positive preliminary FDA data on Rhopressa earlier this morning.

Equities Trading DOWN

Hudson Technologies, Inc. HDSN shares dropped 13 percent to $6.61 amid concerning guidance. The company said it is expecting Q3 EPS of $0.03-$0.05 versus an analyst consensus estimate of $0.10. Sales are expected to be around $25 million versus the analyst estimate of nearly $41 million.

Shares of VOXX International Corp VOXX were down 21 percent to $6.78. Voxx International reported FQ2 profit of $17.1 million on revenue of $113.5 million.

Barracuda Networks Inc CUDA was down, falling around 10 percent to $23.11. Barracuda reported in-line earnings for its second quarter, while sales exceeded estimates. However, the company issued light guidance for the third quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.06 percent to $50.95 while gold traded up 0.09 percent to $1,292.70.

Silver traded down 0.24 percent Wednesday to $17.165, while copper rose 0.08 percent to $3.063.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.08 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.27 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.18 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.23 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.07 percent.

Economics

The MBA's index of mortgage application activity declined 2.1 percent for the latest week.

U.S. job openings declined to 6.08 million in August, versus prior reading of 6.14 million, according to JOLTS report.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-year notes at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams will speak in Salt Lake City at 2:40 p.m. ET.