Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises Over 100 Points; Levi Strauss Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.45% to 26903.38 while the NASDAQ rose 0.8% to 8207.06. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.56% to 2996.41.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 1.3% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included McDermott International, Inc. MDR, up 13%, and Covia Holdings Corporation CVIA, up 12%.

In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc MSM reported weaker-than-expected results for its third quarter and issued weak Q4 forecast.

The company reported third-quarter earnings of $1.44 per share, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.5. The company reported sales of $866.5 million, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $882 million.

MSC Industrial expects Q4 earnings of $1.21 to $1.27 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $1.48 per share. The company projects sales of $835 million to $851 million.

Equities Trading UP

Valeritas Holdings, Inc. VLRX shares shot up 25% to $3.68 after the company on Tuesday afternoon announced its V-Go wearable insulin device has been adopted on multiple managed care formularies.

Shares of Inpixon INPX got a boost, shooting up 30% to $0.6650 after the company announced the acquisition of indoor mapping company Jibestream.

Vislink Technologies, Inc. VISL shares were also up, gaining 313% to $6.86 after the company won a $2.8 million US army contract for handheld intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance receiver devices.

Equities Trading DOWN

Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMRX shares tumbled 34% to $4.5050 after the company cut its FY19 adj. EBITDA guidance along with its restructuring plan.

Shares of Camber Energy, Inc. CEI were down 43% to $4.30 after surging 268.47% on Tuesday.

Levi Strauss & Co. LEVI was down, falling 11% to $21.14 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 EPS results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 4% to $60.15, while gold traded up 1.1% to $1,415.50
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Silver traded up 0.7% Wednesday to $15.25, while copper rose 2.8% to $2.6975.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.23%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.73%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.51%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.08% while UK shares fell 0.08%.

Economics

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.4% for May, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.4% increase.

U.S. crude supplies fell 9.5 million barrels for the week ended July 5, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a decline of 2.1 million barrels. Gasoline inventories dropped 1.5 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles rose 3.7 million barrels.

The Federal Open Market Committee released minutes of its latest meeting.