Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 2%; Top Image Systems Shares Jump

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.19 percent to 25,016.65 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.66 percent to 7,311.81. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.01 percent to 2,706.31.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Monday, the information technology shares climbed 1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Maxwell Technologies Inc. MXWL up 49 percent, and The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. ULTI up 20 percent.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 1 percent.

Top Headline

Clorox Co CLX reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and reaffirmed full year EPS guidance.

Clorox delivered earnings of $1.40 per share, beating estimates of $1.31 per share. The company’s revenue came in at $1.473 billion, versus estimates of $1.47 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

ZK International Group Co Ltd ZKIN shares got a boost, shooting up 33 percent to $2.1600 after the company announced record FY18 revenue of $54.9 million.

Shares of Top Image Systems Ltd. TISA shot up 56 percent to $0.8312 after the company entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Kofax for $0.86 per share in cash.

Maxwell Technologies Inc. MXWL shares were also up, gaining 49 percent to $4.58 after Tesla Inc TSLA announced plans to acquire Maxwell Technologies for $4.75 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Check Cap Ltd CHEK shares dropped 26 percent to $2.54 after the company announced an equity offering of 2.91 million shares and warrant units at $2.58 per unit for a total of $7.5 million..

Shares of Medley Management Inc. MDLY were down 32 percent to $3.38 after Nexpoint Advisors proposed merger transaction to Sierra Income Corporation and Medley Capital Corporation boards.

Triton International Limited TRTN was down, falling around 7 percent to $33.29 after Bank of America downgraded the stock from Buy to Underperform and lowered the price target from $35 to $32.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.33 percent to $53.97 while gold traded down 0.33 percent to $1,317.80.

Silver traded down 0.5 percent Monday to $15.855, while copper fell 0.04 percent to $2.772.

 

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.28 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 1.1 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.31 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.59 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.81 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.08 percent.

Economics

Data on motor vehicle sales for December will be released today.

U.S. factory orders declined 0.6 percent for November.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester is set to speak in Cleveland, Ohio at 7:30 p.m. ET.