Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Gain; Deere Profit Beats Street View

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.24 percent to 16,033.30 while the NASDAQ surged 0.50 percent to 4,212.07. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.36 percent to 1,826.32.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares were relative leaders after strong Chinese trade data. Energy stocks surged around 0.53% on the day.

Leading the group were shares of Pioneer Energy Services PES, up about 5% and shares of Endeavour International END up about 4.8% on the day.

Shares of BPZ Resources BPZ also jumped around 6.3% after the company announced new production from CX15-2D offshore well. Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods & Services stocks dropped 0.09% in Wednesday's trading, compared to S&P's 0.27 percent gain.

Lorillard LO was the top decliner in the sector, down 5.6 percent, after reporting downbeat fourth-quarter earnings.

Top Headline
Deere & Co DE reported a rise in its first-quarter profit. Deere's quarterly profit surged to $681.1 million, or $1.81 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $649.7 million, or $1.65 per share. Its total net sales climbed 3% to $7.65 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $1.52 per share on sales of $6.58 billion. For fiscal year 2014, Deere projects equipment sales to decline around 3%. It also estimates full-year profit of around $3.3 billion.

Equities Trading UP
Conversant CNVR shot up 17.48 percent to $25.54 after reporting strong Q4 earnings. Craig-Hallum upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy.

Shares of Kforce KFRC got a boost, shooting up 12.54 percent to $20.73 after the company issued a strong Q1 outlook.

AMCOL International ACO was also up, gaining 12.20 percent to $41.20 after the company agreed to be acquired by IMERYS for $41 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Jive Software JIVE were down 8.12 percent to $8.15 after the company issued a weak revenue forecast. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from Overweight to Equal-weight.

The Andersons ANDE shares tumbled 9.57 percent to $77.94 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results.

WellCare Health Plans WCG was down, falling 6.78 percent to $58.00 after the company reported a 12% drop in its fourth-quarter earnings.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.09 percent to $101.03, while gold traded up 0.02 percent to $1,290.10.

Silver traded up 0.33 percent Wednesday to $20.22, while copper rose 0.84 percent to $3.24.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly higher today.

The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.13 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.05 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 0.71 percent and the French CAC 40 gained 0.57 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.12 percent.

Economics

The MBA reported that its index of mortgage application activity fell 2% in the week ended February 7.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes.

The U.S. Treasury monthly budget report for January will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.