Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; CVS Health Earnings Beat Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 1.6% to 25611.87 while the NASDAQ fell 0.99% to 7755.50. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.28% to 2,846.72.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares slipped by just 0.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Americas Silver Corporation USAS, up 17%, and B2Gold Corp. BTG, up 12%.

In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 2.7%.

Top Headline

CVS Health Corp CVS reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and sales results. The company also raised fiscal year 2019 EPS guidance above analyst estimates.

The company reported quarterly earnings of $1.89 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.69 by 11.83%. CVS Health reported quarterly sales of $63.4 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $62.65 billion. CVS Health raised and narrowed FY19 adjusted EPS guidance from $6.75-$6.90 to $6.89-$7.00.

Equities Trading UP

Cambrex Corporation CBM shares shot up 47% to $59.80 after the company agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of the Permira funds for $60.00 per share in cash.

Shares of Weight Watchers International, Inc. WW got a boost, shooting up 37% to $28.70 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 sales results. The company also raised FY19 EPS guidance.

Montage Resources Corporation MR shares were also up, gaining 24% to $3.3299 after the company reported Q2 results and raised 2019 production outlook.

Equities Trading DOWN

Entercom Communications Corp. ETM shares tumbled 35% to $3.39 after the company announced downbeat Q2 results and reported the purchase of Pineapple Street Medi and Cadence13.

Shares of New Relic, Inc. NEWR were down 30% to $58.26 after the company reported Q1 earnings results. Multiple firms also downgraded the stock.

Quotient Technology Inc. QUOT was down, falling 28% to $7.26 after the company reported Q2 results and issued weak sales forecast. First Analysis downgraded Quotient from Strong Buy to Outperform.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.6% to $52.75, while gold traded up 1.7% to $1,509.80.

Silver traded up 3.3% Wednesday to $16.98, while copper fell 0.1% to $2.557.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.4%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.7%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.6%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.8% while UK shares rose 0.5%.

Economics

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for June will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.