Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps Over 200 Points; ACCO Brands Shares Gain On Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.73% to 29491.31 while the NASDAQ rose 0.76% to 9,712.15. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.49% to 3,374.30.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed 0.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included ZAGG Inc ZAGG, up 12%, and RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. RICK, up 8%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

CVS Health Corp CVS reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

CVS Health reported quarterly earnings of $1.73 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.68. The company reported quarterly sales of $66.9 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $63.97 billion.

CVS said it expects FY20 adjusted earnings of $7.04 to $7.17 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $7.15 per share.

Equities Trading UP

ACCO Brands Corporation ACCO shares shot up 15% to $10.50 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results.

Shares of Healthcare Services Group, Inc. HCSG got a boost, shooting 13% to $29.69 after the company reported Q4 results.

Shopify Inc. SHOP shares were also up, gaining 12% to $552.65 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued upbeat FY20 guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

PolarityTE, Inc. PTE shares tumbled 47% to $1.70 after the company priced public offering of stock and warrants.

Shares of Insperity, Inc. NSP were down 22% to $69.41 after the company reported Q4 results. Baird downgraded Insperity from Outperform to Neutral and lowered the price target from $107 to $73.

Zosano Pharma Corporation ZSAN was down, falling 47% to $0.5434 after the company priced 10.146 million unit offering at $0.65 per unit.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.7% to $51.30, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,571.70.

Silver traded down 0.6% Wednesday to $17.50, while copper rose 0.7% to $2.602.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.63%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.58%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.70% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.89%, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.83% while UK shares rose 0.47%.

Economics

U.S. crude supplies climbed 7.5 million barrels for the week ended February 7, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a gain of 2.3 million barrels. Gasoline supplies fell 100,000 barrels, while distillate stocks slipped 2 million barrels last week.