Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Down 180 Points; Pinduoduo Shares Tumble After Q3 Earnings

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.65% to 27,754 while the NASDAQ fell 0.8% to 8,502.43. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.62% to 3,100.94.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included California Resources Corporation CRC, up 12%, and McDermott International, Inc. MDR, up 11%.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

Target Corporation TGT reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter and raised its FY19 earnings forecast.

Target posted quarterly earnings of $1.36 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.19 per share. Its sales came in at $18.7 billion, beating expectations of $18.49 billion. Same-store sales increased 4.5% during the quarter.

Target raised its FY19 adjusted EPS guidance from $5.90-$6.20 to $6.25-$6.45.

Equities Trading UP

Cancer Genetics, Inc. CGIX shares shot up 204% to $6.32 after the company announced it has retained H.C. Wainwright to explore strategic alternatives.

Shares of Diffusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. DFFN got a boost, shooting up 72% to $0.3788 after the company reported increased survival rates in the lead-in portion of the Phase 3 Glioblastoma study.

Aravive, Inc. ARAV shares were also up, gaining 65% to $10.73 after the company reported new positive data from its Phase 1b trial of AVB-500. The data from the study affirmed high levels of AVB-500 were strongly predictive of anti-tumor activity with statistically significant correlation to progression-free survival, which is the primary endpoint.

Equities Trading DOWN

Berry Petroleum Corporation BRY shares tumbled 21% to $7.03 after multiple firms downgraded the stock.

Shares of Pinduoduo Inc. PDD were down 24% to $31.11 after the company reported worse-than-expected third-quarter EPS and sales results.

LAIX Inc. LAIX was down, falling 35% to $2.11 after the company reported Q3 results.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 3.5% to $57.15, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,471.70.

Silver traded down 0.1% Wednesday to $17.10, while copper fell 0.5% to $2.644.

Euro zone


European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.41%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.37%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.48%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.26% while UK shares fell 0.84%.

Economics

U.S. crude supplies climbed 1.4 million barrels for the week ended November 15, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a rise of 1.6 million barrels. Gasoline supplies gained 1.8 million barrels, while distillate stocks slipped 1 million barrels last week.

The Federal Open Market Committee issued minutes of its latest meeting.