Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Lower; Barracuda Beats Q3 Expectations

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.16 percent to 19,855.00 while the NASDAQ declined 0.03 percent to 5,530.15. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.12 percent to 2,266.24.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Basic materials shares gained around 1.91 percent in trading on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Gold Resource Corporation GORO, and McEwen Mining Inc MUX.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell by 0.38 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included FirstEnergy Corp. FE, down 2 percent, and Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. CWCO, down 1.5 percent.

Top Headline

Barracuda Networks Inc CUDA reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter on Monday.

Barracuda reported Q3 adjusted earnings of $0.22 per share on revenue of $88.8 million. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.14 per share on revenue of $86.6 million.

Equities Trading UP

Pacific Continental Corporation PCBK shares shot up 26 percent to $26.12 after the company announced plans to merge with Columbia Banking System Inc COLB.

Shares of Illumina, Inc. ILMN got a boost, shooting up 16 percent to $164.74. Illumina has introduced the NovaSeqTM Series. The company’s CEO said he saw Q4 revenue coming in at $619 million. Bank of America upgraded Illumina from Neutral to Buy.

Pixelworks, Inc. PXLW shares were also up, gaining 12 percent to $3.14 after the company issued a strong revenue forecast for the fourth quarter. The company also projects to post a profit for the fourth quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

hhgregg, Inc. HGG shares dropped 51 percent to $0.640. hhgregg reported preliminary Q3 revenue of $453 million.

Shares of Akers Biosciences Inc AKER were down around 13 percent to $1.35. Akers Biosciences reported the pricing of public offering of 1,667,000 shares and 833,500 warrants.

Ascena Retail Group Inc ASNA was down, falling around 12 percent to $5.27 as the company issued a weak earnings forecast for second quarter and FY 2017.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.42 percent to $52.18 while gold traded down 0.10 percent to $1,183.70.

Silver traded down 0.23 percent Tuesday to $16.65, while copper rose 2.78 percent to $2.61.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.02 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index declined 0.66 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.07 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.12 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.02 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.37 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index rose 7.4 points to 105.8 in December. However, economists were projecting a reading of 99.6.

Job openings came in at 5.52 million in November, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report. Economists expected job openings to drop to 5.55 million.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 1 percent for November, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.90 percent growth.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will also auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.