Mid-Day Market Update: Ixia Surges On Upbeat Results; Advisory Board Shares Slide

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 1.22 percent to 16,231.30 while the NASDAQ slipped 1.20 percent to 4,449.48. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.18 percent to 1,898.53. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Wednesday, utilities shares slipped by just 0.5 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Edison International EIX, Ormat Technologies, Inc. ORA, and El Paso Electric Company EE. In trading on Wednesday, basic materials shares dropped by 1.98 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Teck Resources Ltd (USA) TCK, down 10 percent, and BHP Billiton plc (ADR) BBL, down 9 percent. Top Headline Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW reported in-line earnings for its fourth quarter. However, the company's revenue exceeded analysts' estimates. Lowe's said it earned $0.59 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $13.2 billion. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.59 per share on revenue of $13.1 billion. Comparable sales rose 5.2 percent in the quarter, while comparable sales for its U.S. home improvement business rose 5.5 percent. Looking forward to fiscal 2016, Lowe's expects to earn $4.00 per share for the full year which is three cents above Wall Street's expectations. Equities Trading UP Encana Corporation (USA) ECA shares shot up 19 percent to $3.58 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings. Shares of Ixia XXIA got a boost, shooting up 25 percent to $11.72 after the company reported stronger-than-expected Q4 results. Sequential Brands Group Inc SQBG shares were also up, gaining 26 percent to $7.14 after the company reported upbeat Q4 results. Equities Trading DOWN The Advisory Board Company ABCO shares dropped 29 percent to $25.77. Advisory Board Company reported upbeat Q4 earnings, but the company missed analysts' sales estimates. Shares of C&J Energy Services, Ltd. CJES were down 38 percent to $1.00. Citigroup downgraded C&J Energy Services from Buy to Neutral. Avis Budget Group Inc. CAR was down, falling around 26 percent to $22.14 after the company reported downbeat quarterly revenue and issued a weak FY16 earnings outlook. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 3.26 percent to $30.83, while gold traded up 2.23 percent to $1,249.90. Silver traded up 1.31 percent Wednesday to $15.48, while copper fell 1.04 percent to $2.09. Eurozone European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 dropped 2.40 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index slipped 3.17 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 2.86 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX slipped 2.64 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 2.21 percent, while U.K. shares fell 1.72 percent. Economics The Markit flash services PMI dropped to 49.8 in February, versus a reading of 53.2 in January. Sales of new homes declined 9.2 percent to an annual rate of 494,000 in January.