Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Hudson Technologies Drops Amid Concerning Guidance; Aerie Pharmaceutical Shares Gain

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.10 percent to 22,853.75 while the NASDAQ rose 0.12 percent to 6,595.18. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.09 percent to 2,552.83.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares surged 0.61 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. TYPE, up 9 percent, and Semiconductor Manufacturing Int'l (ADR) SMI, up 6 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, telecommunications services shares fell 0.45 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Telekomunikasi Indones (Prsr)Tbk PT-ADR TLK, down 4 percent, and China Telecom Corporation Limited (ADR) CHA down 2 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 62 percent to $3.61 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 WPCS International Incorporated WPCS got a boost, shooting up 34 percent to $2.89 amid the filing of proxy statements related to the company's merger with DropCar.

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc AERI shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $64.20 following positive preliminary FDA data on Rhopressa earlier this morning.

Equities Trading DOWN

Hudson Technologies, Inc. HDSN shares dropped 13 percent to $6.55 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.

Oil-Dri Corporation of America ODC was down, falling around 16 percent to $42.48. Oil-Dri reported Q4 earnings of $0.18 per share on revenue of $65.776 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.24 percent to $51.04 while gold traded down 0.43 percent to $1,288.20.

Silver traded down 0.56 percent Wednesday to $17.11, while copper rose 1.23 percent to $3.098.

Eurozone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.01 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.34 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.97 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.17 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.02 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.06 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 Federal Open Market Committee released minutes of its latest meeting.

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