Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 4%; Applied Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.69% to 28781.88 while the NASDAQ rose 0.70% to 9132.08. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.65% to 3258.20.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 1.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Puyi Inc. PUYI, up 4%, and Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft DB, up 4%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 1.5%.

Top Headline

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. WBA reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results.

Walgreens reported quarterly earnings of $1.37 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $1.41 per share. The company posted sales of $34.34 billion, versus expectations of $34.6 billion.

Equities Trading UP

ShiftPixy, Inc. PIXY shares shot up 152% to $19.51 following news the company completed a recapitalization and said it closed a contract assignment worth $20 million.

Shares of Applied Therapeutics, Inc. APLT got a boost, shooting up 23% to $32.05 after the company announced positive topline results from the pivotal Phase 2 portion of the ACTION-Galactosemia in adult Galactosemia patients. The company noted that AT-007 treatment resulted in a statistically significant and robust reduction in plasma galactitol vs placebo in adult Galactosemia patients.

Newater Technology, Inc. NEWA shares were also up, gaining 22% to $3.9995 following news that the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Yantai Jinzheng Eco-Technology Entered contract for advanced treatment project BT of mine water with Yulin Yuyang Zhongneng Yuandatan Mining for coal mine.

Equities Trading DOWN

Genetic Technologies Limited GENE shares tumbled 24% to $3.43 as a potential sell-off after the stock increased roughly 100% yesterday.

Shares of Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. APOP were down 18% to $3.35 after the company priced a 1 ADS registered direct offering at $3 per ADS.

Inpixon INPX was down, falling 20% to $5.42 after declining 25.78% on Tuesday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 4.1% to $60.13, while gold traded down 0.9% to $1,559.80.

Silver traded down 1.2% Wednesday to $18.165, while copper rose 0.2% to $2.7985.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.17%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.16%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.46%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.71%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.22% while UK shares rose 0.01%.

Economics

U.S. private-sector employers added 202,000 jobs in December, ADP reported. However, economists were expecting a gain of 157,000.

U.S. crude supplies rose 1.2 million barrels for the week ended January 3, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a fall of 3.7 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose 9.1 million barrels, while distillate supplies gained 5.3 million barrels for the week.

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

Data on consumer credit for November will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.