A day that started with some small positive momentum muddled close to breaking even before sliding into negative territory Wednesday — this despite some good earnings news and a report that new home sales for September climbed 5.7% to hit a 2-year high.
Tthe S&P led the way down, off 0.31% to 1,408.75, the Nasdaq dropped 0.29% to 2,981.70 and the Dow settled in down 0.19% at 13,077.34.
Unlike Tuesday’s almost-immediate selloff on disappointing earnings news, early-morning corporate news on Wednesday was positive, led by continued gains in Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), whose stock jumped nearly 20% on the day after posting solid revenue and earnings numbers Tuesday afternoon.
The defense and aerospace sector — including Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) — had a mixed earnings bag, with LMT and GD managing to gain roughly 2% for the day.
Biotech stocks Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD), Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), and Questcor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:QCOR) all reported earnings on the day, with all three beating both top and bottom line estimates. Gilead shares profited the most from the news, climbing over 5% on the day, with Amgen up marginally and Questcor down a fraction.
The tech sector was also hit with a grouping of companies reporting, with only VMware (NYSE:VMW) on the positive end of earnings, revenues and forward guidance among EMC (NYSE:EMC), Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR), and Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM). WMware finished up just over 2% while Juniper Networks was crushed, down 9%.
AT&T (NYSE:T) also reported earnings that topped market expectations and said cash flow this year will be better than previously expected, but the stock failed to gain any ground, closing down nearly 1% on the day.
A deluge of earnings releases on the day included good news from Boeing (NYSE:BA), which posted Street-beating earnings on matching revenues. However, BA shares closed fractionally down.
Lumber Liquidators (NYSE:LL) continued a magic run, gaining over 11% after blowing out third quarter revenue and earnings estimates and providing strong guidance for the remainder of the year. LL is up over 200% on the year.
Lastly, after the bell Wednesday, gamemaker Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) watched its stock surge nearly 15% in after-hours trading following the announcement it would enter the online gambling arena.
The earnings machine cranks up again on Thursday with a host of big names, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Sprint (NYSE:S).
Three Up
- Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST): Up 16.77% ($6.89) to $47.37
- Yelp (NYSE:YELP): Up 7.38% ($1.77) to $25.77
- Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW): Up 4.66% ($1.33) to $29.88 (Read more here)
Three Down
- Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX): Down 11.87% ($8.10) to $60.12 (Read more here)
- Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ:BWLD): Down 10.5% ($8.76) to $74.70
- Corning (NYSE:GLW): Down 9.4% ($1.26) to $12.15
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL.
