Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Goldman Sachs Tops Q4 Expectations

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.64 percent to 24,218.45 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.74 percent to 7,075.48. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.46 percent to 2,622.42.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the financial shares rose 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included KKR & Co Inc KKR up 5 percent, and Bank of America Corp BAC up 6 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.4 percent.

Top Headline

Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Goldman Sachs said it earned $6.04 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $8.08 billion versus expectations of $5.61 per share on revenue of $7.78 billion. The adjusted earnings print came in at 4.83 per share, ahead of Bloomberg's $5.53 estimate.

Net earnings for the quarter improved from a loss of $1.928 billion in the same quarter last year to $2.538 billion although last year's results were impacted by tax reform.

Equities Trading UP

First Data Corp FDC shares got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $20.46 after Fiserv Inc FISV announced plans to buy the company in an all-stock transaction for equity value of $22 billion.

Shares of Inpixon INPX shot up 10 percent to $2.5497 after the company reported a collaboration with SAS to deliver advanced analytics for IoT.

Mercer International Inc. MERC shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $13.37. Mercer International will replace Green Dot in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Friday, January 18.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aptinyx Inc. APTX shares dropped 70 percent to $5.2971 after the company's phase 2 clinical study of NYX-2925 missed its primary endpoint.

Shares of Electronics for Imaging, Inc. EFII were down 19 percent to $22.13 after the company lowered its guidance for the quarter.

Snap Inc. SNAP was down, falling around 10 percent to $5.88 after CFO Tim Stone announced intention to resign.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.02 percent to $52.10 while gold traded up 0.21 percent to $1,291.10.

Silver traded up 0.19 percent Wednesday to $15.65, while copper rose 1.2 percent to $2.666.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.41 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.36 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.09 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.16 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.36 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.41 percent.

Economics

U.S. import price index declined 1 percent in December, following a 1.9 percent fall in the previous month.

The NAHB housing market index increased 2 points to a reading of 58 in January.

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.

The Treasury International Capital report for November is schedule for release at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak in New York, NY at 6:30 p.m. ET.