Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Molycorp Shares Fall as KB Home Jumps on a Surge in Orders - InvestingChannel

Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Molycorp Shares Fall as KB Home Jumps on a Surge in Orders

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.58 percent to 13,792.13 while the NASDAQ rose 0.44 percent to 3,157.63. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.23 percent to 1,495.93.

Top Headline

Following the market close on Tuesday, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) beat on EPS but missed on revenue, sending shares up over 5 percent, while IBM (NYSE: IBM) beat on both revenue and EPS, while guiding higher than street expectations.

The announcements set the stage for today’s highly anticipated big tech releases: Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), both of which happen after the close.

Equities Trading UP

KB Home (NYSE: KBH) posted a 9.99 percent gain to $18.82 towards the end of trading Wednesday after the company reported a spike in home orders.

Shares of Cree (NASDAQ: CREE) were also up, gaining a staggering 21.87 percent to $40.79 after the company posted a large earnings beat following the market close on Tuesday.

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) rose sharply as well, trading up 12.24 percent to $2.75 after beating earnings expectations yesterday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Coach (NYSE: COH) dropped sharply this morning, falling 15.87 percent to $51.05 after missing earnings estimates this morning and announcing it will pivot to become a lifestyle brand.

IAMGOLD (NYSE: IAG) was also down, falling 14.54 percent to $9.29 following a mineral resource update yesterday and a subsequent downgrade at BMO Capital.

Shares of Molycorp (NYSE: MCP) were down as well, dropping 10.99 percent to $7.86 after the company warned of weak revenue for its coming report.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.43 percent to $95.30, while gold traded down 0.41 percent to $1,686.20.

Silver traded up 0.12 percent Wednesday to $32.30.

Euro zone

European markets fell this morning despite some strength in the core. Leading the fall were the Italian MIB index and the Spanish Ibex, both fell 0.25 percent, while the German DAX lead the gainers, rising 0.30 percent.

Economics

In economic news for Wednesday, the world economic conference in Davos Switzerland has begun. So watch for interviews from economic, political, and business leaders from around the world over the course of the next few days.

For economic releases, MBA mortgage applications came in at 7.0 percent, below the prior figure of 15.20 percent, while redbook month over month came in at 1.90 percent, beating the last report of -0.30 percent.

The house price index month over month was also out, coming in at 0.60 percent, the expected 0.70 percent but beating the last reading of 0.50 percent.

The Chicago PMI report for December was revised this morning from its initial report of 51.6 down to 48.9.

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