U.S. stock market indexes opened lower on Wednesday. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 17 points to 22,073. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures lost 4 points to 2,490 and futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 12 points to 5,993. The dollar index is up 0.06% at 91.95, while the U.S. 10-year bond yields 2.167% and the German 10-year bond yields 0.401%.
Inventure Foods Inc. (SNAK, Financial) shares were up more than 30% on the back of the announcement of a deal with Oregon Potato Co. for the sale of its frozen foods business for $50 million. It is expected to close this month. CEO Terry McDaniel said the company will use the proceeds from the transaction to reduce debt and improve financial flexibility.
In other news, shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (PM, Financial) rose after the board of directors declared a $1.07 per share quarterly dividend, up from the previous dividend of $1.04. This represents a 2.9% increase in the annual dividend to $4.28 per share. It will be payable on Oct. 12 to shareholders of record on Sept. 27. Based on Tuesday's closing price, the dividend rate implies a yield of 3.66%, higher than the S&P 500's approximately 2% yield.
Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. (ALDX, Financial) shares were up 11% in premarket trading after the company reported positive results from a Phase 2a clinical trial of topical ocular ADX-102 in patients with dry eye disease on Tuesday.
Gainers
- Centene Corp. (CNC, Financial)
- Nordstrom Inc. (JWN, Financial)
- Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK, Financial)
- L Brands Inc. (LB, Financial)
- Range Resources Corp. (RRC)
- Newfield Exploration Co. (NFX)
- Apache Corp. (APA, Financial)
Losers
- Western Digital Corp. (WDC, Financial)
- Northern Trust Corp. (NTRS, Financial)”‹
- Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX)
- KLA-Tencor Corp. (KLAC, Financial)
- HP Inc. (HPQ, Financial)
- TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP)
- Hologic Inc. (HOLX)”‹
- Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI)
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded higher. France's CAC 40, Germany's DAX and the IBEX 35 advanced slowly while the FTSE 100 was down 0.21%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei Index, China’s Shanghai Composite and India's Sensex rose 0.45%, 0.14% and 0.09% respectively. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.28%.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
