All Quiet On The Market Front: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq Virtually Flat - Enact Holdings (NASDAQ:ACT)

U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday in another quiet trading session due to a lack of catalysts to move stocks.

Economic data showed wholesale inventories rose more than expected in September.

Looking forward to Thursday, retail giant Wal-Mart will report earnings before market open while Jobless Claims data is released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Fed Chair Janet Yellen will present welcoming remarks at a Fed/ECB conference at 12:45 p.m. ET.

The Dow lost 0.02 percent, closing at 17,612.20.
The S&P 500 lost 0.07 percent, closing at 2,038.25.
The Nasdaq gained 0.31 percent, closing at 4,675.14.
Gold lost 0.31 percent, trading at $1,159.40 an ounce.
Oil lost 1.23 percent, trading at $76.98 a barrel.

News Of Note

MBA Mortgage Composite Index declined 0.9 percent after declining 2.6 percent last week.

September Wholesale Trade Inventories rose 0.3 percent (versus expectations of 0.2 percent) to $538.8 billion. Sales rose 0.2 percent to $454.3 billion.

The U.S. and Chinese governments announced a plan to implement new limits on carbon emissions.

Britain's Financial Services Authority, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission along with Switzerland's FINMA fined five major global banks a combined $3.4 billion over price fixing and manipulating allegations in the foreign exchange market.

Equities News Of Note

Macy's M reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $0.61 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51. Revenue of $6.20 billion missed the consensus estimate of $6.37 billion. Shares gained 5.09 percent, closing at $61.57.

Analysts at HSBC initiated coverage of Alibaba BABA with an Overweight rating and $148 price target. Shares gained 3.20 percent, closing at $118.20.

Analysts at Jefferies maintained a Buy rating on Home Depot HD with a price target raised to $113 from a previous $102. Also, analysts at JPMorgan maintained an Overweight rating on Home Depot with a price target raised to $110 from a previous $99. Shares gained 0.36 percent, closing at $98.49.

According to Reuters, at least two of Yahoo's YHOO largest shareholders are pushing the company to explore a merger with AOL. AOL Shares of Yahoo hit new 52-week highs of $50.63 before closing the day at $50.60, up 3.16 percent, while shares of AOL gained 1.41 percent, closing at $45.87.

Samsung accused NVIDIA NVDA of infringing its chip-related patents and is countersuing the company. Shares lost 0.68 percent, closing at $19.65.

Altisourse Portfolio Solutions ASPS said that it will discontinue its Lender Placed Insurance brokerage line of business. The move is expected to dilute the company's quarterly earnings per share by an average of $0.50 to $0.65 in the quarter. Shares hit new 52-week lows of $55.66 before closing the day at $60.50, down 16.87 percent.

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square confirmed an 8.3-percent stake in Zoetis ZTS in a 13D filing. Shares hit new 52-week highs of $43.96 before turning negative and closing the day at $42.64, down 2.47 percent.

According to Bloomberg, Actavis ACT is in advanced talks to acquire Allergan AGN for $60 billion, or more than $200 a share. Shares of Actavis lost 1.24 percent, closing the day at $240.62, while shares of Allergan gained 0.60 percent, closing at $196.51.

Dow Chemical DOW sold its Angus Chemical Specialty unit to Golden Gate Capital for $1.215 billion as part of a new plan to shed at least $7 billion to $8 billion in non-core assets by mid 2016. Shares gained 0.77 percent, closing at $49.90.

Speaking at an analyst presentation, Twitter TWTR executives promised users better messaging capabilities and improvements to the timeline. The company is also open to launching new standalone apps. Shares gained 7.45 percent, closing at $42.54.

J.C. Penney JCP reported its third quarter results after market close. The company lost $0.77 per share, beating the consensus estimate of a $0.79 per share loss. Revenue of $2.76 billion missed the consensus estimate of $2.81 billion. Shares were trading lower by 3.09 percent at $7.52 following the earnings report.

Cisco CSCO reported its first quarter results after market close. The company earned $0.54 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53. Revenue of $12.20 billion beat the consensus estimate of $12.17 billion. Shares were trading higher by 1.75 percent at $25.55 following the earnings report.

Quote Of The Day

“It used to be called Black Friday, then it became Thursday, now it's a week long. Maybe we should just call it November.” - Wal-Mart's Chief Merchant Duncan Mac Naughton commenting on Wal-Mart's “Black Week” of sales.

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