Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 3%; Staffing 360 Solutions Shares Jump

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.73 percent to 24,525.98 while the NASDAQ declined 1.04 percent to 7,082.88. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.89 percent to 2,646.96.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Tuesday, the utilities shares slipped by just 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included PG&E Corporation PCG up 10 percent, and Spark Energy Inc APKE up 2.5 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, industrial shares fell 1.5 percent.

Top Headline

Johnson & Johnson JNJ reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter, but issued weak sales forecast for 2019.

Johnson & Johnson posted quarterly earnings of $1.97 per share on revenue of $20.4 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.95 per share on revenue of $20.17 billion.

Johnson & Johnson expects FY19 adjusted earnings of $8.50 to $8.65 per share on sales of $80.4 billion to $81.2 billion. Analysts project earnings of $8.61 per share on sales of $82.68 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

Staffing 360 Solutions Inc STAF shares got a boost, shooting up 27 percent to $2.57 after the company re-signed its largest client to a multi-year contract.

Shares of Mediwound Ltd MDWD shot up 21 percent to $5.32 after the company disclosed that its Phase 3 study of NexoBrid met primary and all secondary endpoints with statistically significant results compared with control group.

UQM Technologies, Inc. UQM shares were also up, gaining 46 percent to $1.6441 after the company agreed to be acquired by Danfoss for $1.71 per share in cash.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Editas Medicine, Inc. EDIT shares dropped 21 percent to $20.62 after the President and CEO of the company announced she will be stepping down from her position.

Shares of Arconic Inc ARNC were down 17 percent to $16.79 after the company announced its Board of Directors has determined to no longer pursue a potential sale of the company.

Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB OASM was down, falling around 19 percent to $2.62 after the company cancelled its extraordinary general meeting.

 

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.31 percent to $52.02 while gold traded down 0.16 percent to $1,280.50.

Silver traded down 0.48 percent Tuesday to $15.325, while copper fell 2.17 percent to $2.66.

 

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.45 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.28 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 1.02 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.65 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.67 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.99 percent.

Economics

Existing-home sales fell 6.4 percent at an annual rate of 4.99 million in December.