Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls Over 50 Points; RLJ Entertainment Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.30 percent to 18,083.87 while the NASDAQ declined 0.24 percent to 5,201.61. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.28 percent to 2,127.06.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, utilities shares gained by 0.35 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included York Water Co YORW, and FirstEnergy Corp. FE.

In trading on Monday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares fell by 0.56 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Pearson PLC (ADR) PSO, down 8 percent, and Lee Enterprises, Incorporated LEE, down 7 percent.

Top Headline

Bank of America Corp. BAC reported better than expected results for the third quarter.

Bank of America reported net income of $5.0 billion, or EPS of $0.41, for the third quarter. Street expected the company to deliver EPS of $0.33. Last year, the company earned $4.6 billion, or EPS of $0.38.

The company's revenue grew 3 percent from $21.0 billion to $21.6 billion thus exceeding the analysts' estimates of $20.94 billion.

Equities Trading UP

RLJ Entertainment Inc RLJE shares shot up 23 percent to $2.45. RLJ Entertainment and AMC Networks Inc AMCX disclosed that they have entered into a strategic partnership for streaming services.

Shares of ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc CTRV got a boost, shooting up 22 percent to $2.39 after the company disclosed that it has begun dosing the next group in Phase 2a trial.

Quality Systems, Inc. QSII shares were also up, gaining 8 percent to $12.36. Quality Systems has hired UBS to explore a sale, according to DealReporter sources.

Equities Trading DOWN

PTC Therapeutics, Inc. PTCT shares dropped 38 percent to $8.18 after the company reported a regulatory update on Translarna for nonsense mutation DMD.

Shares of Opus Bank OPB were down 20 percent to $27.70 after the company announced a $0.59 loan charge-offs. Opus Bank now projects a Q3 loss of $0.05 per share.

Stone Energy Corporation SGY was down, falling around 13 percent to $9.30. Barclays downgraded Stone Energy from Equal-Weight to Underweight.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.77 percent to $50.36 while gold traded up 0.07 percent to $1,256.40.

Silver traded up 0.14 percent Monday to $17.47, while copper fell 0.28 percent to $2.10.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.74 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.31 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.23 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.73 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.46 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.94 percent.

Economics

The Empire State manufacturing index dropped to negative 6.8 in October, compared to negative 2 in September. Economists expected a reading of positive 1 for the month.

U.S. industrial production rose 0.1 percent in September, versus a revised 0.5 percent decline in August.