Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Edges Higher As EIA Reports Drop In Crude Oil Inventories

US stocks remained higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones surging more than 250 points.

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.75% to 35,727.47 while the NASDAQ rose 1.40% to 14,393.73. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.09% to 4,570.71.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares jumped by 1.8% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Standard Lithium Ltd. SLI, up 10% and Ferroglobe PLC GSM up 12%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

U.S. crude-oil inventories dropped 4.8 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said. However, analysts were expecting for a rise of 0.369 million barrels for the week.

Equities Trading UP

US Ecology, Inc. ECOL shares shot up 69% to $47.48 after Republic Services reported it will buy the company at $48 per share in cash.

Shares of Tritium DCFC Limited DCFC got a boost, shooting 69% to $16.12. Tritium DCFC shares surged nearly 40% Tuesday after the Australian EV charging company announced its new manufacturing facility will be located in the United States. Tritium CEO Jane Hunter appeared at the White House to make the announcement yesterday.

Doximity, Inc. DOCS shares were also up, gaining 27% to $63.18 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 results and issued FY22 sales guidance above estimates.

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Equities Trading DOWN

QuinStreet, Inc. QNST shares tumbled 29% to $11.02 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 adjusted EPS and sales results and cut FY22 guidance. Lake Street downgraded QuinStreet from Buy to Hold.

Shares of New Relic, Inc. NEWR were down 28% to $78.45 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 adjusted EPS results and issued Q4 and FY22 adjusted EPS guidance below estimates.

Zosano Pharma Corporation ZSAN was down, falling 50% to $0.2355 after the company reported pricing of $15.4 million public offering of common stock and warrants.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $89.57, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,833.30.

Silver traded up 0.3% Wednesday to $23.27 while copper rose 2.8% to $4.5865.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.72%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.01%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.84%. The German DAX rose 1.57%, French CAC 40 rose 1.46% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 2.72%.

Italy’s industrial production fell 1% from a month ago in December. The Germany’s trade surplus shrank to EUR 7 billion in December from EUR 15.1 billion in the year-ago period, while current account surplus narrowed to EUR 23.9 billion from EUR 26.2 billion.

Economics

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 2.2% to $789.4 billion in December.

U.S. crude-oil inventories dropped 4.8 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said. However, analysts were expecting for a rise of 0.369 million barrels for the week.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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Check out the full economic calendar here

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 78,556,190 cases with around 932,440 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,410,970 cases and 505,300 deaths, while Brazil reported over 26,776,620 COVID-19 cases with 633,890 deaths. In total, there were at least 401,645,060 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,784,490 deaths.