Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Up 3.5%; Plantronics Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.1% to 29123.19 while the NASDAQ rose 0.24% to 9491.13. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.8% to 3,323.94.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 3.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Peabody Energy Corporation BTU, up 28%, and Pacific Drilling SA PACD, up 21%.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

General Motors Company GM reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed estimates.

General Motors reported fourth-quarter earnings of 5 cents per share on Wednesday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 1 cent. The company reported quarterly sales of $30.8 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $31.04 billion.


Equities Trading UP

Myomo, Inc. MYO shares shot up 99% to $25.81 on continued momentum after the company's MyoPro was approved for reimbursement by German health insurer BARMER.

Shares of VIVUS, Inc. VVUS got a boost, shooting 63% to $3.74 after the company received FDA approval for improved formulation of PANCREAZE with a 36-month shelf life.

Greenhill & Co., Inc. GHL shares were also up, gaining 29% to $21.53 following better-than-expected Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Plantronics, Inc. PLT shares tumbled 38% to $16.55 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 sales results. Evercore ISI Group downgraded Plantronics from Outperform to In-Line and lowered the price target from $37 to $21.

Shares of PC Connection, Inc. CNXN were down 21% to $41.34 after reporting weak Q4 sales.

Nano Dimension Ltd. NNDM was down, falling 22% to $1.50. Nano Dimension priced 2.3 million ADS public offering at $1.50 per ADS.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 3.5% to $51.33, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,561.80.

Silver traded up 0.3% Wednesday to $17.615, while copper rose 1.2% to $2.5735.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.25%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.62%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.59% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.4%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.91% while UK shares rose 0.59%.

Economics

Private-sector employers added 291,000 jobs in January, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported. However, economists were expecting an addition of 154,000 jobs.

The US trade deficit climbed to $48.9 billion in December, versus revised $43.7 billion gap in the prior month. Exports increased 0.8% to $209.6 billion in December, while imports gained $6.8 billion to $258.5 billion.

The IHS Markit services PMI rose to 53.4 in January, versus a preliminary estimate of 53.2 and up from December's final reading of 52.8.

The ISM non-manufacturing PMI climbed to 55.5 in January, versus revised 54.9 in December.

U.S. crude supplies increased 3.4 million barrels for the week ended January 31, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a gain of 3 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose 100,000 barrels, while distillate stocks slipped 1.5 million barrels.

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard is set to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.