Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; Commerce Bancshares Profit Beats Views

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.05 percent to 18,355.85 while the NASDAQ declined 0.02 percent to 5,021.95. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.01 percent to 2,152.00.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Wednesday, basic materials shares surged by 0.9 percent. Top gainers in the sector included POSCO (ADR) PKX and Endeavour Silver Corp EXK.

In trading on Wednesday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.25 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Telecom Italia SpA (ADR) TI, down 3 percent, and NTT Docomo Inc (ADR) DCM, down 2 percent.

Top Headline

Commerce Bancshares, Inc. CBSH reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Wednesday.

Commerce Bancshares announced a 6 percent drop in profit for the first quarter as provision for loan lease losses jumped 37 percent. However, its earnings per share topped the Street estimations by $0.02 a share; Revenue, which grew 3.8 percent, fell shy of the expectations.

Equities Trading UP

Juno Therapeutics Inc JUNO shares shot up 24 percent to $34.37 after the company reported that that U.S. Food and Drug Administration removed a clinical hold on the Phase II clinical trial of JCAR015, also known as the "ROCKET" trial.

Shares of Imprivata Inc IMPR got a boost, shooting up 31 percent to $18.99 as the company reached a definitive deal to be bought by an affiliate of Thoma Bravo, LLC, a private equity firm, for $544 million

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) TEVA shares were also up, gaining 7 percent to $55.84 after the company raised its Q2 guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Avinger Inc AVGR shares dropped 42 percent to $6.60 after the company cut its FY16 sales outlook.

Shares of AAR Corp. AIR were down 8 percent to $23.18 as the company posted weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter on Tuesday.

SemiLEDs Corporation LEDS was down, falling around 14 percent to $6.97 following Q2 earnings report. SemiLEDS reported a Q3 loss of $1.06 per share on revenue of $2.4 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.98 percent to $46.34 while gold traded up 0.47 percent to $1,341.60.

Silver traded up 1.23 percent Wednesday to $20.42, while copper rose 1.60 percent to $2.25.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.30 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 0.34 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.56 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.07 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.44 percent, while U.K. shares rose 0.10 percent.

Economics

The MBA’s index of mortgage application activity for the latest week is scheduled for release at 7:00 a.m. ET.

U.S. import prices rose 0.2 percent for June, while export prices increased 0.8 percent in June.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Federal Reserve will release latest Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The Treasury Budget report for June will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Philadelphia Fed Bank President Patrick Harker is set to speak in Philadelphia at 6:00 p.m. ET.