Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Up Over 4%; Vera Bradley Shares Fall On Earnings Miss

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.77% to 26320.16 while the NASDAQ rose 1.06% to 7957.77. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.90% to 2,932.51.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 1.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Coupa Software Incorporated COUP, up 10%, and Box, Inc. BOX, up 12%.

In trading on Wednesday, health care shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

Navistar International Corp NAV reported better-than-expected Q3 results.

Navistar reported third-quarter earnings of $1.56 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.17. The company reported quarterly sales of $3 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.89 billion.

Equities Trading UP

OpGen, Inc. OPGN shares shot up 73% to $11.25 after the company announced it will acquire Curetis.

Shares of Top Ships Inc. TOPS got a boost, shooting up 23% to $8.18 after the company reported H1'19 sales of $29.8 million, compared to $19.8 million year over year. The company also reported a loss of $600,000, compared to a loss of $6.6 million in the same period last year.

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. CLSD shares were also up, gaining 29% to $0.7575 after the company announced an option and license agreement for exclusive worldwide rights to its SCS Microinjector with REGENXBIO.

Equities Trading DOWN

Eltek Ltd. ELTK shares tumbled 20% to $4.7831 after the company reported Q2 sales lower from last year.

Shares of Vera Bradley, Inc. VRA were down 16% to $8.93 following downbeat Q2 earnings.

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. AEO was down, falling 15% to $13.89 after the company issued Q3 EPS guidance below analyst estimates. However, the company posted upbeat quarterly results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 4.1% to $56.17, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,555.50.

Silver traded up 1.1% Wednesday to $19.445, while copper rose 2.5% to $2.5915.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.85%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.55%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.61%. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.86% and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.11% while UK shares rose 0.59%.

Economics

Data on motor vehicle sales for August will be released today.

The U.S. trade deficit declined around 3% to $54 billion in July, versus a revised $55.5 billion in the previous month. However, economists expected a $53.4 billion deficit. U.S. exports increased 0.6% to $207.4 billion, while imports fell 0.1% to $261.4 billion.

Federal Reserve Member of the Board of Governors Michelle Bowman is set to speak in St.Louis, Missouri at 12:30 p.m. ET.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard will speak in St. Louis, Missouri at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak in a livestreamed event at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will release its latest Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans will speak in Detroit, Michigan at 3:15 p.m. ET.