All Quiet On The Market Front: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq Virtually Flat

U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday in another quiet trading session due to a lack of catalysts to move stocks.

Economic data showed wholesale inventories rose more than expected in September.

Looking forward to Thursday, retail giant Wal-Mart will report earnings before market open while Jobless Claims data is released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Fed Chair Janet Yellen will present welcoming remarks at a Fed/ECB conference at 12:45 p.m. ET.

• The Dow lost 0.02 percent, closing at 17,612.20.
• The S&P 500 lost 0.07 percent, closing at 2,038.25.
• The Nasdaq gained 0.31 percent, closing at 4,675.14.
• Gold lost 0.31 percent, trading at $1,159.40 an ounce.
• Oil lost 1.23 percent, trading at $76.98 a barrel.

News Of Note

MBA Mortgage Composite Index declined 0.9 percent after declining 2.6 percent last week.

September Wholesale Trade Inventories rose 0.3 percent (versus expectations of 0.2 percent) to $538.8 billion. Sales rose 0.2 percent to $454.3 billion.

The U.S. and Chinese governments announced a plan to implement new limits on carbon emissions.

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Britain's Financial Services Authority, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission along with Switzerland's FINMA fined five major global banks a combined $3.4 billion over price fixing and manipulating allegations in the foreign exchange market.

Equities News Of Note

Macy's (NYSE: M) reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $0.61 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51. Revenue of $6.20 billion missed the consensus estimate of $6.37 billion. Shares gained 5.09 percent, closing at $61.57.

Analysts at HSBC initiated coverage of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) with an Overweight rating and $148 price target. Shares gained 3.20 percent, closing at $118.20.

Analysts at Jefferies maintained a Buy rating on Home Depot (NYSE: HD) with a price target raised to $113 from a previous $102. Also, analysts at JPMorgan maintained an Overweight rating on Home Depot with a price target raised to $110 from a previous $99. Shares gained 0.36 percent, closing at $98.49.

According to Reuters, at least two of Yahoo's (NASDAQ: YHOO) largest shareholders are pushing the company to explore a merger with AOL. (NYSE: AOL) Shares of Yahoo hit new 52-week highs of $50.63 before closing the day at $50.60, up 3.16 percent, while shares of AOL gained 1.41 percent, closing at $45.87.

Samsung accused NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) of infringing its chip-related patents and is countersuing the company. Shares lost 0.68 percent, closing at $19.65.

Altisourse Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ: ASPS) said that it will discontinue its Lender Placed Insurance brokerage line of business. The move is expected to dilute the company's quarterly earnings per share by an average of $0.50 to $0.65 in the quarter. Shares hit new 52-week lows of $55.66 before closing the day at $60.50, down 16.87 percent.

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square confirmed an 8.3-percent stake in Zoetis (NYSE: ZTS) in a 13D filing. Shares hit new 52-week highs of $43.96 before turning negative and closing the day at $42.64, down 2.47 percent.

According to Bloomberg, Actavis (NYSE: ACT) is in advanced talks to acquire Allergan (NYSE: AGN) for $60 billion, or more than $200 a share. Shares of Actavis lost 1.24 percent, closing the day at $240.62, while shares of Allergan gained 0.60 percent, closing at $196.51.

Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) sold its Angus Chemical Specialty unit to Golden Gate Capital for $1.215 billion as part of a new plan to shed at least $7 billion to $8 billion in non-core assets by mid 2016. Shares gained 0.77 percent, closing at $49.90.

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Speaking at an analyst presentation, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) executives promised users better messaging capabilities and improvements to the timeline. The company is also open to launching new standalone apps. Shares gained 7.45 percent, closing at $42.54.

J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) reported its third quarter results after market close. The company lost $0.77 per share, beating the consensus estimate of a $0.79 per share loss. Revenue of $2.76 billion missed the consensus estimate of $2.81 billion. Shares were trading lower by 3.09 percent at $7.52 following the earnings report.

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported its first quarter results after market close. The company earned $0.54 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53. Revenue of $12.20 billion beat the consensus estimate of $12.17 billion. Shares were trading higher by 1.75 percent at $25.55 following the earnings report.

Quote Of The Day

“It used to be called Black Friday, then it became Thursday, now it's a week long. Maybe we should just call it November.” - Wal-Mart's Chief Merchant Duncan Mac Naughton commenting on Wal-Mart's “Black Week” of sales.