Europe is coming back into focus today, and not in a good way. Rumors were swirling in Spain that EU officials had been urging their Spanish counterparts to start the process of a bailout from the IMF and ECB. Coupled with a strike due to a renewed austerity push, you had the makings of a down day across the continent.
Italian markets also took a beating on the day, down over 3% on the day. Growth fears are returning in force across the continent and due to the Chinese data and US macro data doing little to allay fears. EU sentiment indexes also declined unexpectedly which helped lead the sell-off.
Domestically the major indices are negative today. Currently, the Dow is down nearly 70 points to 13,075. The Nasdaq and S&P500 are both down 31 and 12 points respectively.
Deer Consumer Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:DEER) is up 44.03% in midday trading at $4.58. DEER is rallying on heavy volume today with 1.4 million shares traded so far, more than 10 times its average volume. DEER shares are up today on strong fiscal year 2012 earnings. The company has a market cap of 145.48 million.
Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) is up 16.76% today at $60.00. RHT has traded 10 million shares so far today, well above its daily average of 1.6 million shares. Red Hat announced quarterly earnings yesterday afternoon and beat analysts’ estimates. Red Hat reported EPS of $0.29, beating estimates of $0.27. The company has a market cap of 11.52 billion.
Cafe Press Inc. (NASDAQ:PRSS) is up 8.37% today at $20.50. PRSS has traded 4.8 million shares so far today. PRSS shares jumped as high as $22.68 in its market debut today.
Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) is up 5.65% in midday trading at $3.09. ARNA has traded 12.4 million shares so far today, more than double its daily average. ARNA shares are bouncing back today after seeing a bit of a sell off yesterday. The company has a market cap of 557.50 million.
Charming Shoppes Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRS) is up 6.57% today at $6.00. CHRS has traded 2.9 million shares in midday trading, well above its daily average of 1.5 million shares. CHRS shares have traded as low as $5.30 and as high as $6 in the past five days. The company has a market cap of 699.78 million.
Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) is up 5.16% today at $48.92. AET has traded 7.9 million shares so far today, more than double its daily average. Health insurance companies are up today after Supreme Court hearings on Obamacare. The company has a market cap of 17.16 billion.
Molycorp, Inc. (NYSE:MCP) is up 4.50% today at $32.95. MCP has traded 4.6 million shares so far today, already higher than its daily average of 4.3 million shares. MCP shares are up about $3 a share since Monday. The company has a market cap of 2.77 billion.
Cigna Corp. (NYSE:CI) is up 3.38% in midday trading at $48.66. CI has traded 4.4 million shares so far today, well above its daily average of 3.4 million shares. CI shares are also rallying today after court hearings on Obamacare. CI shares are up more than $3 a share in the past week. The company has a market cap of 13.99 billion.