Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Lowe's Profit Misses Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.46 percent to 25,527.05 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.54 percent to 7,370.15. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.49 percent to 2,757.81.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday morning, the technology shares gained 0.79 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TiVo Corp TIVO, up 15 percent, and Agilysys, Inc. AGYS, up 6 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, basic materials shares tumbled 0.40 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Synalloy Corporation SYNL, down 5 percent, and Albemarle Corporation ALB down 6 percent.

Top Headline

Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

The company said it earned $0.74 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $15.49 billion versus expectations of $0.87 per share on revenue of $15.33 billion.

Lowe's expects FY18 sales to rise 4 percent and earnings of $5.40 to $5.50 per share.

Equities Trading UP

PHH Corporation PHH shares shot up 26 percent to $10.69 after the company agreed to be purchased by Ocwen Financial for $11 per share in cash.

Shares of Student Transportation Inc STB got a boost, shooting up 25 percent to $7.50 after the company agreed to be acquired by a group of investors led by CDPQ.

Axon Enterprise Inc AAXN shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $33.42 following a surprise earnings beat.

Equities Trading DOWN

Frontier Communications Corp FTR shares dropped 25 percent to $6.92 following its fourth quarter report. The company sees FY18 adjusted EBITDA of $3.6 billion.

Shares of Huron Consulting Group HURN were down 18 percent to $33.70 after the company posted weaker-than-expected quarterly results.
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ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. ACAD was down, falling around 15 percent to $26.53 after the company reported results for its fourth quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.08 percent to $62.96 while gold traded up 0.08 percent to $1,319.60.

Silver traded down 0.05 percent Wednesday to $16.425, while copper fell 0.71 percent to $3.164.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.33 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.52 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.12 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.13 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.27 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.08 percent.

Economics

U.S. economy expanded at an annual pace of 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter, versus a prior reading of 2.6 percent growth. Economists were expecting a 2.5 percent growth.

The Chicago PMI dropped to a reading of 61.9 in February, versus a reading of 65.7 in January.

Pending-home sales declined 4.7 percent to 104.6 for January.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.