Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; Abbott Tops Q3 Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.44 percent to 23,097.85 while the NASDAQ declined 0.06 percent to 6,619.39. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.04 percent to 2,560.26.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the financial shares surged 0.32 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. IBKR, up 6 percent, and Northern Trust Corporation NTRS, up 5 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, basic materials shares fell 0.27 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included KMG Chemicals, Inc. KMG, down 3 percent, and Coeur Mining Inc CDE down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Abbott Laboratories ABT posted better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Abbott posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.66 per share on revenue of $6.8 billion. However, analysts expected earnings of $0.65 per share on revenue of $6.72 billion.

Abbott narrowed FY17 adjusted earnings outlook from $2.43 to $2.53 per share, to $2.48-$2.50 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SPPI shares shot up 37 percent to $19.77. Spectrum Pharmaceuticals highlighted poziotinib data in NSCLC at 18th IASLC World Conference on lung cancer in Japan.

Shares of Ignyta Inc RXDX got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $16.16 after the company disclosed positive NSC lung cancer data.

International Business Machines Corp. IBM shares were also up, gaining 9 percent to $159.74 after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Akari Therapeutics PLC (ADR) AKTX shares dropped 24 percent to $4.89 following news of a common stock offering.

Shares of Social Reality Inc SRAX were down 21 percent to $3.87. Social Reality shares surged 70.73 percent on Tuesday after the announcement of its own Initial Coin Offering: BIGtoken.

Mobileiron Inc MOBL was down, falling around 9 percent to $3.45 after the company issued weak sales forecast and disclosed that CEO Barry Mainz was leaving the company.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.62 percent to $52.20 while gold traded down 0.16 percent to $1,284.10.

Silver traded down 0.09 percent Wednesday to $17.025, while copper fell 0.39 percent to $3.183.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.36 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.05 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.56 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.54 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.41 percent.

Economics

U.S. housing starts dropped 4.7 percent at an annual rate of 1.13 million in September. Economists expected a rate of 1.18 million.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Federal Reserve will release its latest Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.