Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 1.8%; Veracyte Shares Jump After Q3 Results

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.73 percent to 24,621.39 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.36 percent to 7,075.59 . The S&P also rose, gaining 0.49 percent to 2,654.29 .

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the consumer staples shares rose 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ingles Markets, Incorporated IMKTA up 8 percent, and 111 Inc - ADR YI up 6 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 0.3 percent.

Top Headline

General Electric Company GE reported weaker-than-expected results for its third quarter.

General Electric will pay shareholders 1 cent per share per quarter in dividends after announcing a major reduction in conjunction with its third-quarter earnings report.

GE said it earned 14 cents per share in the third quarter on revenue of $29.573 billion, which fell short of the 22 cents per share and $28.85 billion Wall Street analysts expected. The company also announced a $22 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $22 billion related to GE Power and will split the power unit in two divisions.

Equities Trading UP

Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. ESIO shares shot up 89 percent to $28.14 after MKS Instruments announced plans to buy the company at $30 per share.

Shares of Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. HSII got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $37.825 after reporting upbeat Q3 results.

Veracyte, Inc. VCYT shares were also up, gaining 25 percent to $11.83 after the company posted upbeat quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

LM Funding America, Inc. LMFA shares dropped 44 percent to $1.92 after the company priced a 2.5 million unit offering at $2.40 per unit.

Shares of Avinger, Inc. AVGR were down 44 percent to $0.3327 after the company priced a 3.535 million unit offering at $0.40 per share.

Novume Solutions, Inc. NVMM was down, falling around 44 percent to $0.73 after the company priced a 4.125 million share common offering at $0.80 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.8 percent to $65.83 while gold traded down 0.25 percent to $1,224.50.

Silver traded up 0.16 percent Tuesday to $14.465, while copper fell 2.83 to $2.663.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.01 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.17 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.22 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.42 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.22 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.14 percent.

Economics

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index increased 5.5 percent year-over-year for August.

The Conference Board consumer confidence index climbed to 137.9 in October, versus a revised reading of 135.3 in September.

Data on farm prices for September will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.