Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Tandem Diabetes Care Surges On Strong Q4 Results; Weight Watchers Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.16 percent to 26,016.11 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.12 percent to 7,558.29. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.01 percent to 2,794.26.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the energy shares rose 0.6 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Dril-Quip, Inc. DRQ up 17 percent, and CSI Compressco LP CCLP up 11 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell 0.9 percent.

Top Headline

Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.

Lowe's said it earned $0.80 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $15.647 billion versus expectations of $0.79 per share and $15.75 billion. Lowe's expects FY19 earnings of $6.00 to $6.10 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $6.04 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. TNDM shares got a boost, shooting up 26 percent to $62.23 after the company reported better than expected Q4 EPS and revenue results. The company issued strong full-year 2019 sales guidance.

Shares of Frontier Communications Corporation FTR shot up 27 percent to $3.19 after the company beat Q4 sales estimates. Frontier Communications posted Q4 net loss of $2.12 per share on sales of $2.12 billion.

Sea Limited SE shares were also up, gaining 25 percent to $20.28 after reporting Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Weight Watchers International, Inc. WTW shares dropped 33 percent to $19.73 after the company posted downbeat Q4 sales and issued weak full-year 2019 guidance.

Shares of Dycom Industries, Inc. DY were down 30 percent to $43.54 after the company posted downbeat Q4 earnings and issued weak Q1 profit forecast.

Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. SGYP was down, falling around 65 percent to $0.0698 after the company announced Bausch Health would acquire its assets, including rights to TRULANCE. No party submitted a higher bid in accordance with bidding procedures established by bankruptcy court.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.1 percent to $57.24 while gold traded down 0.5 percent to $1,322.20.

Silver traded down 1 percent Wednesday to $15.77, while copper rose 0.4 percent to $2.9625.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.28 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.17 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.19 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.46 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.26 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.61 percent.

Economics

The advanced trade deficit in goods increased 12.8 percent to $79.5 billion in December, versus $70.5 billion in November.

U.S. factory orders increased 0.1 percent in December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent rise.

Pending home sales rose 4.6 percent to a reading of 103.2 for January.

U.S. crude supplies fell 8.65 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a gain of 2.84 million barrels. Gasoline supplies declined 1.91 million barrels, while distillates slipped 304,000 barrels last week.