Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 3%; Applied Genetic Technologies Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.52 percent to 18,046.99 while the NASDAQ declined 1.34 percent to 5,142.06. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.63 percent to 2,123.91.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, technology shares slipped by just 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Intersil Corp, and Changyou.Com Ltd (ADR) CYOU.

In trading on Tuesday, basic materials shares tumbled 3.3 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included LSB Industries, Inc. LXU, down 10 percent, and Valhi, Inc. VHI, down 13 percent.

Top Headline

Japan's Renesas Electronics announced plans to buy Intersil Corp ISIL for $3.22 billion.

Renesas expects to complete the transaction by June 2017.

Equities Trading UP

WPCS International Incorporated WPCS shares shot up 6 percent to $1.38. WPCS reported Q1 earnings of $0.14 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $2.84 per share.

Shares of Liberty Media Group LMCA got a boost, shooting up 14 percent to $27.46. Citigroup upgraded Liberty Media from Neutral to Buy and raised the price target from $22.00 to $32.00.

Intersil Corp ISIL shares were also up, gaining 10 percent to $21.75 after Renesas Electronics announced plans to buy the company for $3.22 billion.

Equities Trading DOWN

Applied Genetic Technologies Corp AGTC shares dropped 31 percent to $9.04. Applied Genetic Technologies reported Q4 earnings of $0.15 per share on revenue of $12.1 million. Janney Capital downgrades Applied Genetic Tech from Buy to Sell, while Wells Fargo downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform. Roth Capital also downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral.

Shares of Marrone Bio Innovations Inc MBII were down 13 percent to $1.63. Marrone Bio Innovations hired Ruben Ramos for its growing Latin American business.

Internap Corp INAP was down, falling around 10 percent to $1.95. Internap named Peter Aquino as its new president and chief executive officer.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.01 percent to $45.43 while gold traded down 0.17 percent to $1,323.30.

Silver traded down 0.37 percent Tuesday to $18.93, while copper rose 0.02 percent to $2.10.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.03 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 1.61 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.74 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.43 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.19 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.53 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index declined 0.2 points to 94.4 in August.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index dropped 0.3 percent during the second week of September versus August.

The U.S. government reported a budget deficit of $107 billion in August, versus a deficit of $64 billion in the year-ago period, the Treasury Department reported. However, economists were expecting a $108 billion deficit for August.