Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; Deere Issues Weak Outlook

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.08% to 28,098.09 while the NASDAQ rose 0.30% to 8,673.83. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.11% to 3,144.02.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares climbed 0.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Manchester United plc MANU, up 11%, and Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. LTRPB, up 7%.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported upbeat sales for its fourth quarter, but issued weak outlook for fiscal 2020.

Deere reported fourth-quarter earnings of $2.14 per share on Tuesday, versus the analyst consensus estimate of $2.14. The company reported quarterly sales of $8.703 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $8.44 billion.

Deere said it projects fiscal 2020 net income of $2.7 billion to $3.1 billion, versus analysts’ estimates of $3.5 billion. The company expects FY20 agriculture & turf equipment sales to decline 5%-10% and construction & forestry sales to drop 10%-15%.

Equities Trading UP

AVX Corporation AVX shares shot up 35% to $20.28 after Kyocera announced a proposal to acquire all shares of the company it does not own for $19.50/share.

Shares of Safe-T Group Ltd SFET got a boost, shooting up 21% to $8.22 after the company reported Q3 results.

Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd. FFHL shares were also up, gaining 12% to $3.6821 after reporting third quarter earnings growth. Earnings came in at 15 cents per share, up from a loss of 8 cents per share year over year. Sales came in at $11.1 million, down from $12.649 million year-over-year.

Equities Trading DOWN

Evolent Health, Inc. EVH shares tumbled 41% to $6.33 after Passport Health, which is owned by the company, was left out of large Medicaid contracts in Kentucky.

Shares of Central Garden & Pet Company CENT were down 19% to $25.47 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 earnings.

Aravive, Inc. ARAV was down, falling 19% to $7.65 after the company reported pricing of public offering of common stock at $7.50 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $58.62, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,457.30.

Silver traded down 0.4% Wednesday to $16.985, while copper rose 0.4% to $2.6875.

Euro zone


European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.4%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.3%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.1% while UK shares rose 0.3%.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders increased 0.6% in October, versus a revised 1.4% drop in the prior month.

The US economy increased by an annualized 2.1% in the third quarter, versus an advance estimate of 1.9% and compared to a 2.0% growth in the prior three-month period.

Initial jobless claims fell 15,000 to 213,000 in the latest week.

U.S. personal income was unchanged for October, versus a 0.3% rise in September. Consumer spending increased 0.3% in October, compared to a 0.2% increase in September.

The pending home sales index fell 1.7% for October.

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 will auction 7-year notes at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 12:00 p.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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

Data on farm prices for October will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.