Stocks Gain As Oil, Euro Continue Sharp Sell Off

Stocks continued higher Wednesday on the low volume that has been present in recent weeks. The world’s largest company, Apple Inc. AAPL, gave the S&P 500 and Nasdaq (which are weighted by market capitalization) a boost, with its 3.1 percent gain.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 54.8 points, or 0.32 percent to close at 17,069.
• The S&P 500 gained 7.3 points, or 0.36 percent to close at 1,996.
• The Nasdaq added 34.2 points, or 0.75 percent to close at 4,587.

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Apple Inc's price target was rasised by Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Mizuho and Wells Fargo Wednesday. The average of these targets is $110 (8.9 percent upside). Pacific Crest was the only analyst to downgrade the stock; it was cut from outperform to sector perform.

Google Inc GOOG GOOGL extended its reach into biotechnology with the acquisition of Life Labs. Life Labs makes a self stabilizing spoon for patients with Parkinson's disease.

Channeladvisor reported that Amazon.com, Inc.’s AMZN same store sales rose by 45 percent in August while eBay recorded growth of just 5.9 percent. August is often referred to as the “back to school” month.

Stock Movers

NPS Pharmaceuticals NPSP shares shot up 25.1 percent to $32.24 after the company reported that the FDA has posted briefing materials for Advisory Committee meeting reviewing Natpara for Hypoparathyroidism

Shares of Lands' End LE got a boost, gaining 20.6 percent to $40.20 after the company reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results.

Palo Alto Networks PANW shares were also up, gaining 10.6 percent to $98.75 after the company posted better-than-expected FQ4 revenue and issued a strong revenue forecast for the current quarter.

Shares of GT Advanced Technologies GTAT were down 14.6 percent to $12.78 after Goldman Sachs, Dougherty and Piper Jaffray downgraded shares.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts KKD shares fell 3.1 percent to $17.07 after the company posted a weaker-than-expected second-quarter profit.

eBay EBAY fell 3.1 percent to $51.10. Marketing service provider ChannelAdvisor said eBay’s comparable sales grew 5.9 percent in August. Analysts at Piper Jaffray downgraded eBay from Overweight to Neutral.

Global markets

Chinese markets sold off Wednesday amid gains in Japan. The Shanghai index gave up 0.35 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sold off 1.93 percent. Japan’s Nikkei added 0.25 percent.

European trade was mostly flat following Monday’s and Tuesday’s sharp sell off. The Euro Stoxx 50, which tracks 50 blue chips, gave up 0.04 percent. London’s FTSE gained 0.02 percent and France’s CAC dropped 0.04 percent.

Commodities

Gold got a small rebound following Tuesday’s $10 decline. Futures were last trading at $1,250.80, up 0.18 percent on the session. Silver added 0.48 percent to reach $19.01.

Crude oil is continuing its steep sell off. Following Wednesday’s 1.04 percent sell off, the commodity is trading at the lowest level since January 2013. At $91.79, contracts may see some support around $91.50.

Currencies

The Powershares ETF UUP, which tracks the value of the US dollar versus a basket of foreign currencies, rose a twentieth of a percent after making a 52 week high Tuesday. The ETF was last trading at $22.43.

The closely watched EUR/USD pair continues to make year lows. The pair was last down 0.17 percent to $1.2915.