Mid-Day Market Update: WebMD Surges On Strong Outlook; Medtronic Shares Slip

Related BZSUM Market Wrap For April 14: Markets Surge on Positive Retail Data, Citi Earnings Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Trade in Mixed Session as Organovo Falls

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.70 percent to 16,139.04 while the NASDAQ surged 0.95 percent to 4,037.75. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.81 percent to 1,830.32.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
In trading on Monday, technology shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.18 percent. Among the leading sector stocks, gains came from WebMD Health (NASDAQ: WBMD) and 21Vianet Group (NASDAQ: VNET). Telecommunications services shares gained by just 0.35 percent in the US market today.

Top losers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), off 5.8 percent, and Lumos Networks (NASDAQ: LMOS), down 2.9 percent.

Top Headline
Citigroup (NYSE: C) reported better-than-expected first-quarter results. Citigroup's quarterly profit surged to $3.94 billion, versus a year-ago profit of $3.81 billion. On a per-share basis, it earned $1.23. Excluding one-time items, its earnings rose to $1.30 versus $1.29. Its revenue declined to $20.12 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $1.14 per share on revenue of $19.37 billion.

Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Equities Trading UP
Aspen Insurance Holdings (NYSE: AHL) shares shot up 11.33 percent to $43.83 after Endurance Specialty Holdings (NYSE: ENH) offered to buy Aspen Insurance for $47.50 per share in a cash and stock deal.

Shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) got a boost, shooting up 13.77 percent to $83.02 following court ruling preventing Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) from selling CoreValve System in the US.

WebMD Health (NASDAQ: WBMD) shares were also up, gaining 19.22 percent to $44.91 after the company lifted its forecast. The company now expects Q1 results above the high end of its earlier outlook.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Antero Resources (NYSE: AR) were down 3.64 percent to $60.92 after the company announced a 105% y/y gain in its Q1 preliminary gas production.

Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) shares tumbled 2.06 percent to $57.98 on Federal District Court ruling preventing the company from selling its CoreValve System in the US as a result of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) patent infringement verdict.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) was down, falling 2.55 percent to $12.80 after the company announced a change in executive leadership team.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.10 percent to $103.84, while gold traded up 0.62 percent to $1,327.20.

Silver traded up 0.20 percent Monday to $19.99, while copper rose 0.12 percent to $3.05.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly higher today.

The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.17 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.55 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.26 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.43 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.24 percent.

Economics
US retail sales rose 1.1% to $433.9 billion in March, versus an upwardly revised 0.7% gain in February.

Economists were estimating total sales to increase 0.9%.

US business inventories rose 0.40% in February, versus economists' expectations for a 0.50% gain.

Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Eurozone Futures Forex Global Econ #s Economics Intraday Update Markets Movers Tech

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