Mid-Day Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Red; OmniVision Shares Tumble On Weak Outlook

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.28 percent to 15,869.45 while the NASDAQ tumbled 0.17 percent to 4,030.50. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.32 percent to 1,789.49.

Top Headline
Express EXPR issued a downbeat earnings forecast for the holiday quarter.

Express now projects a Q4 profit of $0.66 to $0.71 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.78 per share.

Express reported its Q3 net income of $19.3 million, or $0.23 per share, up from $17.4 million, or $0.20 per share, in the year-ago period. However, analysts expected a profit of $0.25 per share. Its sales climbed 7% to $503 million, while same-store sales gained 5% in the period.

Equities Trading UP
OncoMed Pharmaceuticals OMED shot up 8.62 percent to $30.09 after the company initiated Phase 1B trial of WNT-parthway-target antibody. Jefferies lifted the price target on the stock from $27 to $46.

Shares of G-III Apparel Group GIII got a boost, shooting up 10.65 percent to $64.50 after the company reported upbeat Q3 results and raised its FY14 forecast.

BRE Properties BRE was also up, gaining 11.79 percent to $59.66 after Bloomberg reported that the company is working with Wells Fargo on a possible sale.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Express EXPR were down 22.82 percent to $19.04 after the company reported downbeat Q3 earnings and issued a weak Q4 earnings forecast.

OmniVision Technologies OVTI shares tumbled 6.32 percent to $14.98 after the company issued downbeat third-quarter forecast.

Sears Holdings SHLD was down, falling 7.90 percent to $51.16 after the company's CEO Edward Lampert cut his stake in the company to 48.4% from 55.4%.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.69 percent to $96.70, while gold traded up 0.39 percent to $1,225.60.

Silver traded up 1.34 percent Wednesday to $19.32, while copper rose 2.02 percent to $3.23.

Eurozone
European shares were lower today. The Spanish Ibex Index tumbled 0.58 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.16 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.87 percent and the French CAC 40 declined 0.57 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.30 percent.

Economics
The MBA's index of mortgage application activity dropped 12.80% in the week ended November 29.

Private-sector employers added 215,000 jobs in November, according to Automatic Data Processing. However, economists were expecting an addition of 170,000 jobs in the month.

U.S. trade deficit dropped 5.4% to $40.6 billion in October. However, economists were expecting the deficit to decline to $40.0 billion in the month. The nation's exports increased 1.8% to $192.7 billion, while imports rose 0.4% to $233.3 billion.

The ISM non-manufacturing index fell to 53.90 in November, versus a prior reading of 55.40. However, economists were expecting a reading of 55.00.

Sales of new US homes surged 25.4% to an annual rate of 444,000 in October, versus 354,000 in September. However, economists were expecting sales to total 419,000 in October.

Crude supplies declined by 5.6 million barrels for the week ended November 29, the US Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a fall of 1.25 million barrels.

The Fed will release its Beige Book at 2:00 p.m. ET.