Mid-Day Market Update: NASDAQ Tumbles 0.5%; Infinity Pharmaceuticals Jumps On Deal With AbbVie

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.15 percent to 17,093.73 while the NASDAQ tumbled 0.50 percent to 4,575.16. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.09 percent to 2,000.55.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.61 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Texas Pacific Land Trust TPL, down 4.6 percent, and Trina Solar TSL, off 3.8 percent.

Technology shares fell by 0.60 percent in today’s trading. Top decliners in the sector included eGain EGAN, Synaptics SYNA, and Dot Hill Systems HILL.

Top Headline

Toll Brothers TOL reported a better-than-expected third-quarter profit.

The Horsham, Pennsylvania-based company posted quarterly net income of $97.7 million, or $0.53 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $46.6 million, or $0.26 per share.

Its revenue climbed 53% to $1.06 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.45 per share on revenue of $989.29 million.

Equities Trading UP

Infinity Pharmaceuticals INFI shares shot up 45.79 percent to $15.92 on deal with AbbVie ABBV.

Shares of Concur Technologies CNQR got a boost, shooting up 6.91 percent to $107.93 following a Bloomberg TV report that the company may be exploring a possible sale.

Navistar International NAV shares were also up, gaining 2.08 percent to $39.29 after the company reported a narrower-than-expected loss for the fiscal third quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Shares of Helen of Troy HELE were down 10.09 percent to $53.18 after the company cut its earnings forecast for fiscal 2015 citing recent weakness in retailing.

Capital Product Partners LP CPLP shares tumbled 6.48 percent to $10.25 after the company priced 15 million units at $10.53 per unit.

Ellington Financial LLC EFC was down, falling 4.27 percent to $23.55 after the company priced 8 million shares at $23.92 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.89 percent to $94.64, while gold traded up 0.22 percent to $1,267.80.

Silver traded up 0.12 percent Wednesday to $19.18, while copper fell 0.84 percent to $3.13.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.67 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index surged 1.17 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 2.10 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 1.29 percent and the French CAC 40 surged 1.11 percent while UK shares climbed 0.73 percent.

Economics

The MBA reported that its index of mortgage application activity gained 0.20% in the week ended August 29.

The ICSC-Goldman Store Sales Index came in flat in the week ended Saturday versus the prior week.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index gained 0.7% in the first four weeks of August versus July.

US factory orders rose 10.50% in July, versus economists’ expectations for an 11.00% growth.

The Federal Reserve will release its latest Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.