Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 80 Points; Pure Storage Shares Surge On Upbeat Earnings

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.31 percent to 25,741.78 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.27 percent to 7,880.52. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.06 percent to 2,861.25.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the energy shares rose 1.29 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included EP Energy Corporation EPE up 12 percent, and Pioneer Energy Services Corp. PES up 10 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, telecommunication services shares fell 1.76 percent.

Top Headline

Target Corporation TGT reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and raised its FY18 outlook.

Target posted quarterly earnings of $1.47 per share on revenue of $17.78 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.40 per share on revenue of $17.31 billion.

Target now projects full-year earnings of $5.30 to $5.50 per share, versus prior forecast of $5.15 to $5.45 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Exact Sciences Corporation EXAS shares shot up 25 percent to $62.66 after the company announced it will partner with Pfizer through 2021 to co-promote Colorguard stool DNA screening test for colorectal cancer.

Shares of Pure Storage, Inc. PSTG got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $25.31 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter and issued strong third-quarter sales guidance. The company also announced the acquisition of StorReduce.

Yulong Eco-Materials Limited YECO shares were also up, gaining 56 percent to $2.131 as the company signed a sale and purchase deal to buy Millennium Sapphire for $50 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. BNED shares dropped 12 percent to $5.62 after the company reported a wider-than-expected Q1 loss. The company also disclosed that it has acquired PaperRater.com.

Shares of New Age Beverages Corporation NBEV were down 14 percent to $1.36. New Age Beverages priced its 8.2 million share common stock offering at $1.28 per share.

BIO-key International, Inc. BKYI was down, falling around 11 percent to $1.8585 after the company announced a 1.2 million unit offering at $1.50 per unit.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.25 percent to $67.98 while gold traded up 0.29 percent to $1,203.50.

Silver traded down 0.10 percent Wednesday to $14.845, while copper fell 0.77 to $2.6905.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.03 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.33 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.40 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 surged 0.22 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.11 percent.

Economics

U.S. existing home sales declined 0.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.34 million for July.

Domestic crude supplies declined 5.84 million barrels for the week ended August 17, the Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a drop of 1.5 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles gained 1.2 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose 1.85 million barrels for the week.

The Federal Open Market Committee issued minutes of its latest meeting.