Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Tesla Drops on Baird Downgrade and YouTube Video

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.06 percent to 15,303.68 while the NASDAQ declined 0.01 percent to 3,459.59. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.06 percent to 1,649.69.

Top Headline
Monsanto Co MON reported a wider fiscal fourth-quarter loss. Monsanto posted a quarterly loss of $249 million, or $0.47 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $229 million, or $0.44 per share. Its revenue surged to $2.20 billion from $2.10 billion. However, analysts were estimating a loss of $0.43 per share on revenue of $2.26 billion.

Monsanto announced its plans to buy The Climate Corporation for $930 million in cash. It expects FY14 earnings of $5 to $5.20 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $5.31 per share. Equities Trading UP

Osiris Therapeutics OSIR gained 12.73 percent to $18.86 following an upgrade at Piper Jaffray to Overweight while Maintaining its $21 price target.

Shares of Portugal Telecom, SGPS S.A. PT got a boost, shooting up 6.59 percent to $4.85 after Portugal Telecom and Oi SA OIBR announced a memorandum of understanding for merger of activities.

Global Payments GPN was also up, gaining 12.11 percent to $56.87 after the company reported upbeat fiscal first-quarter results and raised its annual forecast. Global Payments named Jeffrey S. Sloan as its new chief executive and also announced its plans to buy back up to $100 million of its common stock.

Equities Trading DOWN

Shares of Team TISI were down 14.15 percent to $34.30 after the company lowered its annual earnings outlook.

Teekay LNG Partners LP TGP shares tumbled 3.89 percent to $42.55 after the company priced its follow-on public offering of 3,000,000 common units at $42.62 per unit.

Tesla TSLA was also down, falling 6.67 percent to $190.90, which was actually a recovery from its earlier low of $175. The Drop was spurred this morning by a downgrade at Baird, while a youtube video of a Model S on fire being circulated on twitter added fuel to its decline.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.91 percent to $103.99, while gold traded up 2.45 percent to $1,317.60. Silver traded up 2.76 percent Wednesday to $21.74, while copper rose 1.19 percent to $3.31.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly lower today.The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.09 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.78 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.69 percent and the French CAC 40 fell 0.97 percent while U.K. shares declined 0.39 percent. Economics
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its index of mortgage application activity declined 0.40% in the week ended September 27, versus a rise of 5.50% in the prior week.

The US private sector added 166,000 jobs in September, according to Automatic Data Processing. However, analysts were projecting a rise of 180,000 jobs.

Crude stockpiles increased 5.5 million barrels for the week ended September 27, the US Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a rise of 2.4 million barrels.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was expected to speak at 3:00 p.m. ET.