Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 5%; S&W Seed Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.49 percent to 25,393 while the NASDAQ fell 1.88 percent to 7,605. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.51 percent to 2,813.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 0.5 percent on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector includedCentrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. - Eletrobras EBR 1.23%, up 2 percent, and Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. FGP 0.46%, up 1 percent.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 3.5 percent.

Top Headline

Best Buy Co Inc BBY 6.78% reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Best Buy reported first quarterly earnings of $1.02 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 86 cents by 18.6 percent. The company reported sales of $9.142 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $9.13 billion by 0.13 percent.

Equities Trading UP

S&W Seed Company SANW 16% shares shot up 17 percent to $2.92 after the company announced an agreement with Corteva Agriscience which the company will receive $45 million in cash and $25 million in payments.

Shares of Netshoes (CAYMAN) Ltd NETS 41.12% got a boost, shooting up 42 percent to $2.79 following a Reuters report that the owner of Group SBF presented a competing bid for the company.

Neovasc Inc NVCN 43.19% shares were also up, gaining 38 percent to $0.65 following news 2-year follow-up safety and efficacy data for its Neovasc Reducer was published in the International Journal of Cardiology.

Equities Trading DOWN

Organovo Holdings Inc ONVO 37.72% shares tumbled 37 percent to $0.56 after the company reported it sees its preliminary Q4 net loss to be $7 million.

Shares of Bluegreen Vacations Corp BXG 29.44% were down 29 percent to $10.58. BBX Capital disclosed that it will not proceed with merger with Bluegreen Vacations.

Obalon Therapeutics Inc OBLN 47.38% was down, falling 46 percent to $0.71 after the company priced its direct offering of 5 million shares at $0.6 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 5.3 percent to $58.19, while gold traded up 0.9 percent to $1,285.50.

Silver traded up 1.2 percent Thursday to $14.625, while copper rose 0.1 percent to $2.6805.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.42 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index declined 1.28 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.12 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 1.78 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.81 percent while UK shares dropped 1.41 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 1,000 to 211,000 last week. However, economists projected a reading of 217,000.

The flash manufacturing PMI fell to 50.6 in May, versus a reading of 52.6 in April, while services PMI slipped to 50.9 in May from 53.

New-home sales fell 6.9 percent at an annual rate of 673,000 in April.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 100 billion cubic feet for the week ended May 17, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 103 billion cubic feet.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan is set to speak in Dallas, TX at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Tom Barkin will speak in Dallas, TX at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic is set to speak in Dallas, TX at 1:00 p.m. ET.

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly will speak in Dallas, TX at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.