Mid-Day Market Update: Twitter Drops On Earnings; Pepco Shares Gain

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.10 percent to 16,551.91 while the NASDAQ tumbled 0.16 percent to 4,096.86. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.07 percent to 1,879.70.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Wednesday morning, the telecommunications services sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from NQ Mobile NQ and Level 3 Communications LVLT. In trading on Wednesday, healthcare shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.19 percent.

Top losers in the sector included Auxilium Pharmaceuticals AUXL, Isis Pharmaceuticals ISIS, and Nymox Pharmaceutical NYMX.

Top Headline
Time Warner TWX reported upbeat first-quarter results. Time Warner's quarterly net income from continuing operations surged to $1.29 billion, or $1.42 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $754 million, or $0.79 per share. On an adjusted basis, Time Warner earned $0.91 per share, beating analysts' estimates of $0.88 per share. Its revenue climbed 9% to $7.55 billion compared to $6.94 billion. However, analysts were estimating revenue of $6.61 billion.

Equities Trading UP
LogMeIn LOGM shares shot up 19.10 percent to $46.59 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and issued a strong outlook.

Shares of Energizer Holdings ENR got a boost, shooting up 15.36 percent to $112.72 after the company announced its plans to split into 2 companies.

Pepco Holdings POM shares were also up, gaining 17.33 percent to $26.74 after Exelon EXC announced its plans to buy Pepco for $6.83 billion.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Power Integrations POWI were 22.02 percent to $45.55 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results and issued a weak Q2 revenue outlook.

Vistaprint NV VPRT shares tumbled 25.14 percent to $39.99 on weaker-than-expected quarterly results.

Twitter TWTR was down, falling 10.14 percent to $38.30 after the company posted a wider first-quarter net loss. The company also reported weaker-than-expected active monthly users. Twitter's adjusted profit came in flat on a per share basis, versus analysts' expectations for a loss of $0.03 per share.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1.76 percent to $99.50, while gold traded down 0.23 percent to $1,293.30.

Silver traded down 1.58 percent Wednesday to $19.23, while copper fell 1.37 percent to $3.03.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly lower today.

The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.02 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.88 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 0.20 percent and the French CAC 40 tumbled 0.23 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.17 percent.

Economics
Private-sector employers added 220,000 jobs in April, according to Automatic Data Processing. However, economists were estimating an addition of 210,000 private-sector jobs in the month.

US GDP growth slowed to an annual pace of 0.1% in the first quarter.

The employment cost index increased 0.3% in the first quarter, versus economists' expectations for a 0.5% gain.

The MBA reported that its index of mortgage application activity dropped 5.9% to 333.2 in the week ended April 25.

The Chicago PMI for April increased to 63.0 in April versus 55.9 in March.

Crude stockpiles climbed 1.7 million barrels for the week ended April 25, the US Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 2.1 million barrels.

Gasoline supplies rose 1.6 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles surged 1.9 million barrels.

The FOMC will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Data on farm prices will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Date
▲▼
ticker
▲▼
name
▲▼
Actual EPS
▲▼
EPS Surprise
▲▼
Actual Rev
▲▼
Rev Surprise
▲▼
Posted In: EarningsNewsGuidanceEurozoneFuturesForexGlobalEcon #sEconomicsIntraday UpdateMarketsMoversTech
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!

Loading...