Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Drops 75 Points; Cleantech Solutions International Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.32 percent to 23,515.49 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.01 percent to 6,863.32. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.11 percent to 2,596.30.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the energy sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from TETRA Technologies, Inc. TTI and Abraxas Petroleum Corp. AXAS.

In trading on Wednesday, financial shares fell 0.13 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Adams Natural Resources Fund Inc PEO, down 4 percent, and Old Point Financial Corporation OPOF down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Wednesday.

Deere reported Q4 earnings of $1.57 per share on revenue of $8.018 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $1.47 per share on sales of $7.05 billion.

Deere expects FY18 net income of $2.6 billion and equipment sales to rise 22 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Cleantech Solutions International Inc CLNT shares shot up 98 percent to $8.82 after the company disclosed that its subsidiary, Vantage Ultimate Limited, entered into a conditional share swap deal to buy 51 percent interest in Marvel's issued share capital of Integrated Media Technology.

Shares of Eltek Ltd. ELTK got a boost, shooting up 57 percent to $5.64. Eltek’s 1-for-5 reverse stock split took place today.

Copart, Inc. CPRT shares were also up, gaining 10 percent to $40.35 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sunshine Heart Inc CHFS shares dropped 44 percent to $4.42. CHF Solutions priced public offering of convertible preferred stock and warrants for gross proceeds of $18 million.

Shares of Rand Logistics, Inc. RLOG were down 26 percent to $0.430 following deal to be purchased by American Industrial Partners.

Iconix Brand Group Inc ICON was down, falling around 19 percent to $2.06. CONSOL Energy will replace Iconix Brand Group in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Thursday, November 30.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.30 percent to $57.57 while gold traded up 0.68 percent to $1,295.00.

Silver traded up 0.84 percent Wednesday to $17.205, while copper rose 0.25 percent to $3.1585.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.27 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.21 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.05 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 1.16 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.25 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.10 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders declined 1.7 percent for October, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent growth

U.S. initial weekly jobless claims dropped 13,000 to 239,000 in the latest week. However, economists were projecting claims to reach 240,000 last week.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 98.50 in November, versus prior reading of 97.80. Economists projected a reading of 98.00.

Domestic crude supplies dropped 1.85 million barrels for the week ended November 17, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a fall of 1.54 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles gained 44.000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose 269,000 barrels last week.

Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 46 billion cubic feet for the week ended November 17, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts estimated a drop of 51 billion cubic feet.

The Federal Open Market Committee issued minutes of its latest meeting.