Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up 2%; Moneygram Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.20 percent to 24,872.93 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.60 percent to 7,048.82. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.44 percent to 2,707.71.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the technology sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Renren Inc RENN and Sequans Communications SA ADR SQNS.

In trading on Wednesday, telecommunications services shares fell 1.05 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc CNSL, down 7 percent, and IDT Corporation IDT down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Commercial Metals Company CMC posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings.

Commercial Metals reported Q1 adjusted earnings of $0.32 per share on revenue of $1.2 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $0.17 per share on sales of $1.1 billion.

Equities Trading UP

SCANA Corporation SCG shares shot up 23 percent to $47.86. Dominion Energy Inc D announced plans to buy Scana in a $7.9 billion all-stock deal.

Shares of China Hgs Real Estate Inc HGSH got a boost, shooting up 134 percent to $2.95. China HGS Real Estate reported FY 2017 earnings of $0.14 per share, up from $0.11 per share in 2016.

Trevena Inc TRVN shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $2.00 after the company announced the FDA acceptance of NDA for OLINVO.

Equities Trading DOWN

Moneygram International Inc MGI shares dropped 10 percent to $12.05 after the company reported the termination of its merger deal with China’s Ant Financial, due to the CFIUS rejected the companies proposals related to protecting personal data.

Shares of Atara Biotherapeutics Inc ATRA were down 7 percent to $16.90 after the company reported a proposed offering of common stock.

Crispr Therapeutics AG CRSP was down, falling around 7 percent to $23.41. CRISPR Therapeutics disclosed a proposed public offering of common shares.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2 percent to $61.57 while gold traded up 0.17 percent to $1,318.30.

Silver traded up 0.23 percent Wednesday to $17.245, while copper fell 0.87 percent to $3.2495.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.48 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.37 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.27 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.83 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.81 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.30 percent.

Economics

The ISM manufacturing index gained to 59.70 in December, versus prior reading of 58.20. Economists were expecting a reading of 58.10.

U.S. construction spending rose 0.8 percent for November, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.6 percent growth.

The Federal Open Market Committee issued minutes of its latest meeting.