Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; General Motors Posts Mixed Q4 Results

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.04% to 29107.33 while the NASDAQ rose 0.55% to 9519.93. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.84% to 3,325.45.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 2.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Peabody Energy Corporation BTU, up 27%, and Montage Resources Corp MR, up 15%.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

General Motors Company GM reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed estimates.

General Motors reported fourth-quarter earnings of 5 cents per share on Wednesday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 1 cent. The company reported quarterly sales of $30.8 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $31.04 billion.


Equities Trading UP

Myomo, Inc. MYO shares shot up 116% to $28.03 on continued momentum after the company's MyoPro was approved for reimbursement by German health insurer BARMER.

Shares of Predictive Oncology Inc. POAI got a boost, shooting 63% to $4.435. Predictive Oncology launched innovative specialty media for growing ovarian tumors in the lab.

VIVUS, Inc. VVUS shares were also up, gaining 41% to $3.25 after the company received FDA approval for improved formulation of PANCREAZE with a 36-month shelf life.

Equities Trading DOWN

Plantronics, Inc. PLT shares tumbled 35% to $17.43 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 sales results. Evercore ISI Group downgraded Plantronics from Outperform to In-Line and lowered the price target from $37 to $21.

Shares of PC Connection, Inc. CNXN were down 20% to $42.09 after reporting weak Q4 sales.

Knowles Corporation KN was down, falling 16% to $17.18 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results. The company also issued Q1 EPS and sales guidance below estimates.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $50.76, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,557.60.

Silver traded down 0.1% Wednesday to $17.56, while copper rose 1.6% to $2.582.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.8%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.9% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.1%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.9% while UK shares rose 0.5%.

Economics

Private-sector employers added 291,000 jobs in January, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported. However, economists were expecting an addition of 154,000 jobs.

The US trade deficit climbed to $48.9 billion in December, versus revised $43.7 billion gap in the prior month. Exports increased 0.8% to $209.6 billion in December, while imports gained $6.8 billion to $258.5 billion.

The IHS Markit services PMI rose to 53.4 in January, versus a preliminary estimate of 53.2 and up from December's final reading of 52.8.

The ISM non-manufacturing PMI climbed to 55.5 in January, versus revised 54.9 in December.

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

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard is set to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.