Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 1.5%; Venator Materials Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.01% to 27489.99 while the NASDAQ fell 0.34% to 8,405.95. However, the S&P rose 0.03% to 3,075.41.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed 0.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNST), up 88%, and Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQST), up 23%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 2.2%.

Top Headline

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter and raised its FY19 earnings guidance.

CVS Health reported quarterly earnings of $1.84 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.77 per share. The company posted quarterly sales of $64.81 billion, versus analysts’ estimates of $63 billion.

CVS Health raised its FY19 adjusted EPS forecast from $6.89-$7.00 to $6.97-$7.05.

Equities Trading UP

Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNST) shares shot up 88% to $27.72 after the company reported Q3 results.

Shares of Venator Materials PLC (NYSE: VNTR) got a boost, shooting up 29% to $3.7850 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 EPS and sales results.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) shares were also up, gaining 29% to $3.2150 following Q3 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ: FLDM) shares tumbled 51% to $2.50 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 sales results.

Shares of Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE: PLT) were down 41% to $23.43 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 EPS and sales results.

BlueLinx Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BXC) was down, falling 42% to $18.05 following Q3 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.5% to $56.37, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,493.40.

Silver traded up 0.2% Wednesday to $17.60, while copper fell 1.2% to $2.668.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.21%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.04%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.24%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.34% while UK shares rose 0.12%.

Economics

U.S. nonfarm productivity declined by an annualized 0.3% in the third quarter, versus a revised 2.5% growth in the prior three-month period. Unit labour costs increased an annualized 3.6% in the third quarter.

U.S. crude supplies gained 7.9 million barrels for the week ended November 1, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a rise of 2.7 million barrels. Gasoline supplies fell 2.8 million barrels, while distillate supplies slipped 600,000 barrels last week.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker is set to speak in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 3:15 p.m. ET.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams will speak in New York at 6:30 p.m. ET.