Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Smart & Final Stores Gains Following Acquisition News; Microvision Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.06 percent to 26,435.96 while the NASDAQ declined 0.14 percent to 7,988.82. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.27 percent to 2,899.12.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the information technology shares rose 0.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included QUALCOMM Incorporated QCOM up 10 percent, and 21Vianet Group, Inc. VNET up 9 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, health care shares fell 2.6 percent.

Top Headline

Morgan Stanley MS reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter on Wednesday.

Morgan Stanley said it earned $1.39 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $10.29 billion versus expectations of $1.16 per share and $10 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Smart & Final Stores, Inc. SFS shares got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $6.49 after the company announced it will be acquired by Apollo funds for $6.50 per share in cash.

Shares of QUALCOMM Incorporated QCOM shot up 10 percent to $77.66 after the company settled its royalty dispute with Apple. Several analysts upgraded Qualcomm shares following the settlement.

Palomar Holdings, Inc. PLMR shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $18.32. Palomar Holdings priced its IPO at $15 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

CEVA, Inc. CEVA shares dropped 16 percent to 23.35 after Exane BNP Paribas downgraded the company's stock from Outperform to Neutral.

Shares of MicroVision, Inc. MVIS were down 16 percent to $0.9991 after the company reported Q1 EPS of $(0.08), down from $(0.09) last year and Q1 sales of $1.9 million, down from $2.19 million last year.

Yangtze River Port and Logistics Limited YRIV was down, falling around 11 percent to $1.2385 after the company announced an agreement with Alliance Global Partners to conduct a $100 million common stock offering, exclusively for Alliance, at a price of $1.51 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1 percent to $64.13 while gold traded down 0.1 percent to $1,276.40.

Silver traded up 0.1 percent Wednesday to $14.92, while copper rose 1.1 percent to $2.963.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.1 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.55 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.37 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.43 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.62 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.02 percent.

Economics

The U.S. trade deficit shrank 3.4 percent to $49.4 billion in February, versus a revised $51.1 billion deficit in January. However, economists projected a $53.4 billion gap. Exports rose 1.1 percent to $209.7 billion, while imports climbed 0.2 percent to $259.1 billion in February.

U.S wholesale inventories increased 0.2 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.4 percent rise.

U.S. crude supplies dropped 1.396 million barrels for the week ended April 12, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a gain of 1.2 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell 1.174 million barrels, while distillate inventories declined 362,000 barrels last week.

The Federal Reserve released its latest Beige Book report.