Mid-Day Market Update: McDermott Drops Following Merger Deal With CB&I; Pfenex Shares Surge

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.24 percent to 24,732.99 while the NASDAQ declined 0.33 percent to 6,971.89. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.14 percent to 2,686.31.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Tuesday, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector proved to be a source of strength for the market.

In trading on Tuesday, technology shares fell 0.50 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Data I/O Corporation DAIO, down 6 percent, and Glu Mobile Inc. GLUU down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Darden reported Q2 earnings of $0.73 per share on revenue of $1.88 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.70 per share on revenue of $1.85 billion.

Darden raised its FY 2018 earnings guidance from $4.38-$4.50 per share, to $4.45-$4.53 per share.

Equities Trading UP

China Recycling Energy Corp. CREG shares shot up 19 percent to $3.23 following news of an energy storage development cooperation contract with Shanghai Electric and Fujian Tongyong.

Shares of Pfenex Inc PFNX got a boost, shooting up 59 percent to $3.31. Pfenex earned $18.5 million in milestones and updated worldwide license and option agreement with Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Riot Blockchain Inc RIOT shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $44.18. Riot Blockchain reported a $37 million private placement.

Equities Trading DOWN

Yield10 Bioscience Inc YTEN shares dropped 27 percent to $2.09 after the company reported pricing of its $12.6 million underwritten public offering.

Shares of ImmuCell Corporation ICCC were down 17 percent to $7.41. ImmuCell priced its $3 million offering at $7.30 per share.

McDermott International Inc MDR was down, falling around 11 percent to $6.76. McDermott and Chicago Bridge & Iron announced plans to combine in a $6 billion deal.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.38 percent to $57.38 while gold traded down 0.02 percent to $1,265.80.

Silver traded down 0.12 percent Tuesday to $16.185, while copper rose 0.25 percent to $3.154.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.14 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.11 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.21 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.19 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 0.35 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.14 percent.

Economics

U.S. housing starts rose 3.3 percent to an annual rate of 1.297 million in November. Economists were expecting a 1.27 million annual rate.

U.S. current account deficit dropped 19 percent to $100.6 billion in the third quarter.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index declined 0.4 percent during the first three weeks of December versus November.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak in Roseville, Minnesota at 1:10 p.m. ET.