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

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.53 percent to 24,279.36 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.11 percent to 7,102.43. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.16 percent to 2,652.55.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Wednesday afternoon, the energy shares climbed 0.59 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Energy XXI Gulf Coast, Inc. EGC, up 15 percent, and Natural Resource Partners L.P. NRP, up 11 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, telecommunication services shares fell 1.41 percent.


Top Headline

Fastenal Company FAST reported in-line results for its first quarter on Wednesday.

Fastenal reported Q1 earnings of $0.61 per share on revenue of $1.19 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $0.61 per share on sales of $1.19 billion.

Equities Trading UP

EyeGate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. EYEG shares shot up 21 percent to $0.4001 after the company disclosed 'positive' new 12-week and 26-week results from its ongoing Phase 2 study of seladelpar in patients with primary biliary cholangitis at the International Liver Congress 2018.

Shares of AeroVironment, Inc. AVAV got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $54.165. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded AeroVironment from Hold to Buy.

Pretium Resources Inc. PVG shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $8.18 after the company issued Q1 production results.


Equities Trading DOWN

Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. BW shares dropped 38 percent to $2.35 after the company amended rights offering. The company increased size to $248 million and lowered per share subscription price from $3 to $2.

Shares of Intec Pharma Ltd. NTEC were down 20 percent to $5.15. Intec Pharma priced its 6.75 million share offering at $5.25 per share for gross proceeds of $35.4 million.

Analogic Corporation ALOG was down, falling around 13 percent to $83.45 after the company agreed to be acquired by Altaris Capital Affiliate for $84 per share.


Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.01 percent to $66.83 while gold traded up 0.80 percent to $1,356.60.

Silver traded up 0.60 percent Wednesday to $16.695, while copper fell 0.83 percent to $3.111.


Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 tumbled 0.59 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.28 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.69 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.83 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.56 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.13 percent.

Economics

The MBA's index of mortgage application activity declined 1.8 percent for the latest week.

The Consumer Price Index fell 0.1 percent for March.

Crude supplies rose 3.3 million barrels for the week ended April 6, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Analysts expected a gain of 100,000 barrels. Gasoline stockpiles rose 500,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles declined 1 million barrels for the week.

The U.S. government reported a budget deficit of $209 billion for March, versus a deficit of $176 billion in the year-ago month, according to the Treasury Department.

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

Posted In: NewsEurozoneCommoditiesGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMid-Afternoon Market Update
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