Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; General Mills Earnings Top Estimates

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.3 percent to 25,809.97 while the NASDAQ declined 0.1 percent to 7,716.00. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.24 percent to 2,825.81.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the consumer discretionary shares climbed 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Veoneer Inc VNE up 4 percent, and Renren Inc RENN up 4 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, industrial shares fell 0.7 percent.

Top Headline

General Mills, Inc. GIS reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter and lifted its full-year guidance.

General Mills reported quarterly earnings of $0.83 per share on sales of $4.2 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.69 per share on sales of $4.19 billion. General Mills said it now expects adjusted EPS between flat and up 1 percent for full-year fiscal 2019.

Equities Trading UP

Motif Bio plc MTFB shares got a boost, shooting up 101 percent to $3.24 after the FDA granted the company's request for a Type A meeting to discuss the complete response letter regarding iclaprim.

Shares of Nevro Corp. NVRO shot up 32 percent to $59.08 after the company announced it reached a management agreement with hedge fund Broadfin Capital. Nevro named D. Keith Grossman as President and CEO. Bank of America upgraded Nevro from Neutral to Buy, while BMO Capital upgraded the stock from Market Perform to Outperform.

China Bat Group, Inc. GLG shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $2.32 after the company on Tuesday issued a press release saying it believes it is 'well-positioned' to target the luxury car rental services market in China.

Equities Trading DOWN

Intellipharmaceutics International Inc. IPCI shares dropped 14 percent to $0.2312 after Nasdaq notified the company that it will delist its shares. The company's shares will begin trading on the OTC exchange.

Shares of AAR Corp. AIR were down 7 percent to $32.51. AAR reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company also cut 2019 guidance.

Tencent Music Entertainment Group TME was down, falling around 7 percent to $17.20 after fourth-quarter adjusted earnings fell inline with estimates, while sales missed estimates. Monthly active users were up 6.8 percent year over year.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1 percent to $58.43 while gold traded up 0.1 percent to $1,307.80.

Silver traded down 0.2 percent Wednesday to $15.35, while copper rose 0.1 percent to $2.926.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.4 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.3 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.2 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.1 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.2 percent.

Economics

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 Open Market Committee will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.