Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down 2.5%; Celator Pharmaceuticals Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.14 percent to 17,558.09 while the NASDAQ declined 0.61 percent to 4,792.49. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.25 percent to 2,044.68. Leading and Lagging Sectors Wednesday morning, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained by 0.30 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Bridgford Foods Corporation BRID, up 4 percent, and Dean Foods Co DF, up 3 percent. In trading on Wednesday, basic materials shares dipped by 1.84 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Coeur Mining Inc CDE, down 8 percent, and Endeavour Silver Corp EXK, down 9 percent. Top Headline General Mills, Inc. GIS reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, but the company missed analysts' sales estimates. General Mills posted quarterly earnings of $361.7 million, or $0.59 per share, compared to $343.2 million, or $0.56 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding certain items, the company's adjusted earnings came in at $0.65 per share. Its revenue slipped to $4 billion from $4.35 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.62 per share on revenue of $4.08 billion. Equities Trading UP Cerulean Pharma Inc CERU shares shot up 13 percent to $2.84 after the company reported the publication showing CRLX101 localization selectively in human tumors and sparing adjacent healthy tissue. Shares of Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc CPXX got a boost, shooting up 18 percent to $11.80 after the company reported the pricing of a $38.0 million public offering of common stock. CTI Industries Corp. CTIB shares were also up, gaining 10 percent to $5.81. CTI Industries reported Q4 earnings of $0.30 per share on revenue of $59.3 million. Equities Trading DOWN SAGE Therapeutics Inc SAGE shares dropped 19 percent to $27.00. Kerrisdale Capital stated that in addition to a negative report, SAGE Therapeutics's lead drug candidate "is likely to fail in Phase 3." Shares of Eltek Ltd. ELTK were down 16 percent to $1.18. Eltek reported Q4 earnings of $0.02 per share on revenue of $10.4 million. Sunedison Inc SUNE was down, falling around 8 percent to $1.38. Axiom's Gordon Johnson maintained a Sell rating on Sunedison, while reducing his price target from $0.39 to $0.22. Stifel Nicolaus terminated Hold rating on SunEdison. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 2.5 percent to $40.43, while gold traded down 2.47 percent to $1,219.40. Silver traded down 3.78 percent Wednesday to $15.29, while copper fell 2.21 percent to $2.24. Eurozone European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.03 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.65 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index fell 0.45 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX climbed 0.51 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.07 percent, while U.K. shares rose 0.01 percent. Economics Sales of new US homes gained 2 percent to an annual pace of 512,000 in February. However, economists were expecting a 510,000 rate. Crude oil supplies surged 9.36 million barrels for the week ended March 18, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. However, economists were expecting a gain of 3.09 million barrels. Gasoline supplies slipped 4.64 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose 917,000 barrels last week.