Mid-Day Market Update: Google Shares Surge Ahead of Developer Conference, E-Commerce Sales Up

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.47 percent to 15,286.86, while the NASDAQ rose 0.31 percent to reach 3,473.19. The S&P also rose 0.57 percent to 1,659.81.

Shares of Google Inc

surged Wednesday, crossing the $900 mark for the first time to $909.38. The rally came ahead of the company's sixth annual developer conference in San Fransisco. The conference, known as the Google I/O, is an opportunity for Google to showcase its latest mobile devised that run on Android, while unveiling the features of its upcoming product line-up. Google is also expected to provide some insight into the popularity of its social networking platform, Google Plus. The conference is expected to be attended by about 6,000 people, including engineers and entrepreneurs from the mobile/tablet apps segment, apart from reporters from the world over.

SunPower Corporation

shot up, gaining 15.22 percent to $21.93, after SunPower announced that it expected to return to profits in 2013 after a three year gap due to increased revenue from large solar power plants and rooftop systems. The company expects to top analyst estimates this year. National Bank of Greece SA

was also up 11.26 percent to $1.72. While the rally that has been continuing since Monday has been on no particular news, many analysts believe that this uptrend could be a post-announcement artifact that the bank has been able to raise enough private capital to avoid being nationalized. Himax Technologies, Inc

got a boost, shooting up 12.77 percent to $7.77. Himax Technologies hit a new 52 week high Wednesday, above its previous 52 week high of $7.10. The average volume of shares traded over the past 30 days is 4.5 million shares.

The ExOne Company

was down, falling 13.03 percent to $42.27, after ExOne reported weaker than expected results for the most recent quarter, with higher than expected loss per share and lower than expected revenues. Computer Sciences Corporation

shares tumbled 10.29 percent to $44.35. Computer Sciences reported its sales figures for the most recent quarter below the analyst estimates. The business solutions unit recorded a 12 percent drop in sales, while the North American public sector unit reported a 6.8 percent decline. Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shrs

was down 10.02 percent to $9.72. Direxion's year-to-date return stands at -48.77%.

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.24 percent to $93.98, while gold dropped 1.86 percent to $1.398.00. Silver traded down 2.84 percent Wednesday to $22.72, while copper fell 0.50 percent to $3.27.

European shares were mixed in early trade following the weaker than expected GDP data from the eurozone and the Bank of England's Quarterly Inflation Report. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.55 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index declined 0.02 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX fell 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 declined 0.23 percent while U.K. shares shed 0.21 percent.

The housing market index posted an improvement in May, indicating an acceleration in the new home market. The index rose 3 points from the downward revised 44 level reported for April. E-commerce sales for the first quarter rose 2.7 percent, q-o-q, a decline from the 4.4 percent witnessed in the fourth quarter. E-commerce as a percentage of total sales recorded a new high of 5.5 percent, up from the 5.4 percent reported for the fourth quarter. Oil imports were flat for the week of May 10, with a drop in domestic production and an increase in refinery inputs. Refineries posted an increase in both output of gasoline and a rise in inventory levels to 2.6 million barrels.