Mid-Day Market Update: U.S. Stocks Mixed; VeriFone Shares Surge On Upbeat Results;

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.09 percent to 16,337.32 while the NASDAQ gained 0.15 percent to 4,313.46. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.10 percent to 1,865.70.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Utilities sector gained by 0.40% in today's trading. The top gainers in the sector included New Jersey Resources NJR, SJW SJW and CPFL Energia SA CPL. Telecommunications services sector was the leading decliner in the US market today. Among the sector stocks, China Techfaith Wireless Communication Technology CNTF was down more than 20 percent, while China Unicom (Hong Kong) CHU tumbled around 4.3 percent.

Top Headline
Express EXPR reported a drop in its fourth-quarter profit and issued a weak outlook. Express expects Q1 profit of $0.12 to $0.18 per share and full-year profit of $1.03 to $1.23 per share. However, analysts were expecting a Q1 profit of $0.42 per share and full-year profit of $1.59 per share. Express posted its quarterly profit of $47.9 million, or $0.57 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $63.9 million, or $0.75 per share. However, analysts expected a profit of $0.59 per share.

Equities Trading UP
EPL Oil & Gas EPL shot up 29.58 percent to $37.72 after Energy XXI EXXI announced its plans to buy EPL Oil & Gas for about $1.53 billion.

Shares of Chimerix CMRX got a boost, shooting up 11.92 percent to $23.28 after the company received the FDA approval to provide brincidofovir to Josh Hardy.

VeriFone Systems PAY was also up, gaining 11.45 percent to $32.60 after the company reported upbeat fiscal first-quarter results and issued a strong full-year earnings forecast. VeriFone posted its quarterly earnings of $0.31 per share, beating analysts' estimates of $0.27 per share. Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock from Sell to Hold and lifted the price target from $18.00 to $29.00.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Express EXPR were down 11.13 percent to $16.21 after the company reported downbeat Q4 earnings and issued a weak forecast.

Raven Industries RAVN shares tumbled 11.94 percent to $35.01 after the company reported fourth-quarter results.

China Distance Education Holdings DL was down, falling 7.03 percent to $20.89 after the company priced follow-on public offering of 4 million ADSs at $21.00 per ADS.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 2.40 percent to $97.63, while gold traded up 1.40 percent to $1,365.60.

Silver traded up 1.59 percent Wednesday to $21.15, while copper rose 0.47 percent to $2.97.

Eurozone
European shares were lower today.

The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.92 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.18 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX tumbled 0.74 percent and the French CAC 40 declined 0.82 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.60 percent.

Economics
The MBA reported that its index of mortgage application activity declined 2.10% in the week ended March 7.

Crude stockpiles rose 6.2 million barrels for the week ended March 7, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 2.3 million barrels.

Gasoline supplies dropped 5.2 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles slipped 500,000 barrels.

The US Treasury monthly budget report for February will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.