Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Student Transportation Rises On Acquisition News; Frontier Communications Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.11 percent to 25,382.01 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.15 percent to 7,341.53. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.03 percent to 2,745.03.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the technology shares gained 0.23 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TiVo Corp TIVO, up 15 percent, and RealPage Inc RP, up 8 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, basic materials shares tumbled 0.95 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Synalloy Corporation SYNL, down 6 percent, and Albemarle Corporation ALB down 9 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 $10.72 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 $7.49 after the company agreed to be acquired by a group of investors led by CDPQ.

Endocyte, Inc. ECYT shares were also up, gaining 26 percent to $5.30. Endocyte priced its 17.86 million share offering at $4.20 per share. Endocyte appointed Patrick Machado, J.D. to its Board of Directors.

Equities Trading DOWN

Frontier Communications Corp FTR shares dropped 25 percent to $6.93 following its fourth quarter report. The company's board said it will be suspending its quarterly dividend, which is expected to free up $250 million in cash to accelerate its debt repayment.

Shares of Huron Consulting Group HURN were down 16 percent to $34.45 after the company posted weaker-than-expected quarterly results.
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Community Health Systems CYH was down, falling around 16 percent to $5.16. Community Health posted a narrower-than-expected Q4 loss, while sales missed estimates. The company also issued a weak 2018 forecast.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.48 percent to $62.08 while gold traded up 0.20 percent to $1,321.20.

Silver traded up 0.31 percent Wednesday to $16.485, while copper fell 1.63 percent to $3.1345.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.71 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.61 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.51 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.44 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.44 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.69 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.

Domestic crude supplies gained 3.02 million barrels for the week ended February 23, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a rise of 2.4 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles climbed 2.48 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles declined 960,000 barrels for the week.