Mid-Afternoon Market Update: RH Rises On Upbeat Earnings; InspireMD Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.27 percent to 23,920.94 while the NASDAQ declined 0.47 percent to 6,975.63. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.04 percent to 2,613.73.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the telecommunication services shares gained 2.38 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Spok Holdings, Inc. SPOK, up 4 percent, and Sify Technologies Limited SIFY, up 3 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer discretionary shares fell 0.55 percent.

Top Headline

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. WBA reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and raised its FY18 earnings guidance.

Walgreens reported adjusted earnings of $1.73 per share on revenue of $33 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.55 per share on sales of $32.2 billion.

Walgreens now expects FY18 adjusted earnings of $5.85 to $6.05 per share, versus earlier forecast of $5.45 to $5.70 per share.

Equities Trading UP

RH RH shares shot up 22 percent to $92.02 after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and issued strong FY2018 earnings guidance.

Shares of Ever-Glory International Group, Inc. EVK got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $3.70 following Q4 results. Ever-Glory reported Q4 earnings of $0.37 per share on sales of $130.4 million.

LaSalle Hotel Properties LHO shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $28.84. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust offered to buy LaSalle Hotel Properties in an all-stock transaction.

Equities Trading DOWN

Edge Therapeutics, Inc. EDGE shares dropped 92 percent to $1.31 after the company announced decision to discontinue Phase 3 NEWTON 2 study and reduce size of workforce.

Shares of InspireMD, Inc. NSPR were down 38 percent to $1.50. InspireMD priced its 2.857 million share offering at $1.75 per share.

Invitae Corporation NVTA was down, falling around 14 percent to $4.630. Invitae priced its 11.11 million share offering at $4.50 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.75 percent to $64.11 while gold traded down 1.16 percent to $1,332.30.

Silver traded down 1.67 percent Wednesday to $16.265, while copper rose 0.15 percent to $3.005.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.46 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.86 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.55 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.25 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.29 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.64 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy expanded at an annual pace of 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter, versus prior reading of 2.5 percent growth. However, economists were expecting a 2.5 percent growth.

U.S. trade deficit widened 0.1 percent to $75.4 billion in February from $75.3 billion. Advanced wholesale inventories rose 1.1 percent in February, while advanced retail inventories increased 0.4 percent.

The pending home sales index increased 3.1 percent to 107.5 for February Economists projected a 2.1 percent rise.

Crude supplies increased 1.64 million barrels for the week ended March 23, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Analysts projected a gain of 287,000 barrels. Gasoline stockpiles slipped 3.47 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell 2.09 million barrels for the week.

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