Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up Over 2%; Ballard Power Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.07 percent to 22,135.09 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01 percent to 6,454.71. However, the S&P fell 0.03 percent to 2,495.85.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the energy shares surged 0.86 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ballard Power Systems Inc. (USA) BLDP, up 20 percent, and NGL Energy Partners LP NGL, up 14 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, basic materials shares fell 0.71 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included USG Corporation USG, down 4 percent, and Gold Resource Corporation GORO down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. CBRL reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Cracker Barrel expects Q4 earnings of $2.23 per share on revenue of $743.2 million. Analysts were projecting earnings of $2.18 per share on revenue of $746.7 million. Same-store sales dropped 1.7 percent in the quarter.

Cracker Barrel expects FY18 earnings of $8.85 to $9 per share, on revenue of $3.1 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Inventure Foods Inc SNAK shares shot up 25 percent to $4.19 after the company reported the sale of its frozen division for $50 million.

Shares of Ballard Power Systems Inc. (USA) BLDP got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $4.47 after the company reported a collaboration with Nisshinbo Holdings to develop a Non Precious Metal Catalyst.

Sientra Inc SIEN shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $14.81. William Blair upgraded Sientra from Market Perform to Outperform.

Equities Trading DOWN

Applied Genetic Technologies Corp AGTC shares dropped 19 percent to $4.01 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

Shares of A-Mark Precious Metals Inc AMRK were down 7 percent to $17.39 as the company reported weaker-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Tuesday.

Radiant Logistics Inc RLGT was down, falling around 8 percent to $4.99. Radiant Logistics posted stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.18 percent to $49.28 while gold traded down 0.36 percent to $1,327.90.

Silver traded down 0.28 percent Wednesday to $17.84, while copper fell 1.76 percent to $2.9825.

Eurozone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.02 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.34 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.01 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.23 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.16 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.28 percent.

Economics

The MBA's index of mortgage application activity rose 9.9 percent for the latest week.

The Producer Price Index gained 0.2 percent for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent growth.

Domestic crude supplies rose 5.89 million barrels for the week ended September 8, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 3.24 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles dropped 8.43 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles slipped 3.21 million barrels for the week.

The U.S. government reported a deficit of $108 billion in August, versus a budget deficit of $107 billion in the year-ago period, the Treasury Department reported. Economists were expecting a $119.5 billion deficit for August.