Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 5%; Weight Watchers Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 1.29% to 25694.69 while the NASDAQ fell 0.71% to 7,777.75. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.01% to 2,852.71.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares slipped by just 0.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. COKE, up 18%, and Vector Group Ltd. VGR, up 6%.

In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 2.5%.

Top Headline

CVS Health Corp CVS reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and sales results. The company also raised fiscal year 2019 EPS guidance above analyst estimates.

The company reported quarterly earnings of $1.89 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.69 by 11.83%. CVS Health reported quarterly sales of $63.4 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $62.65 billion. CVS Health raised and narrowed FY19 adjusted EPS guidance from $6.75-$6.90 to $6.89-$7.00.

Equities Trading UP

Cambrex Corporation CBM shares shot up 47% to $59.99 after the company agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of the Permira funds for $60.00 per share in cash.

Shares of Weight Watchers International, Inc. WW got a boost, shooting up 39% to $29.24 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 sales results. The company also raised FY19 EPS guidance.

Montage Resources Corporation MR shares were also up, gaining 25% to $3.34 after the company reported Q2 results and raised 2019 production outlook.

Equities Trading DOWN

Entercom Communications Corp. ETM shares tumbled 43% to $2.9901 after the company announced downbeat Q2 results and reported the purchase of Pineapple Street Medi and Cadence13.

Shares of New Relic, Inc. NEWR were down 33% to $55.90 after the company reported Q1 earnings results. Multiple firms also downgraded the stock.

Quotient Technology Inc. QUOT was down, falling 30% to $7.08 after the company reported Q2 results and issued weak sales forecast. First Analysis downgraded Quotient from Strong Buy to Outperform.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 5.7% to $50.60, while gold traded up 2.3% to $1,518.20.

Silver traded up 3.9% Wednesday to $17.09, while copper rose 0.4% to $2.5675.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.24%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.54%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.45%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.71%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.61% while UK shares rose 0.38%.

Economics

U.S. crude oil inventories rose 2.4 million barrels for the week ended August 2, the Energy Information Administration reported.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for June will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.