Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Up 2.9%; Gemphire Therapeutics Shares Plumme

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.25% to 26,613.59 while the NASDAQ rose 0.65% to 7,936.15. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.19% to 2,923.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 1.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ensco Rowan plc ESV 12.27%, up 14%, and Noble Corporation plc NE 9.15%, up 10%.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell 1.4%.

Top Headline

BlackBerry Ltd BB 9.46% reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings and sales results.

BlackBerry reported first-quarter earnings of 1 cent per share, which beat analyst estimates by a penny. The company reported quarterly sales of $267 million, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $264.53 million.

Equities Trading UP

Aerohive Networks, Inc. HIVE 39.56% shares shot up 39% to $4.4350 after Extreme Networks, Inc. EXTR 6.81% announced plans to acquire Aerohive for $4.45 per share in cash.

Shares of Micron Technology, Inc. MU 13.56% got a boost, shooting up 13% to $36.95 after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Marathon Patent Group, Inc. MARA 15.54% shares were also up, gaining 16% to $3.0930 in sympathy with a 10% rise in the price of Bitcoin this morning. Strength in the crypto space may also be linked to the recent announcement of Facebook's Libra.

Equities Trading DOWN

Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. GEMP 28.51% shares tumbled 20% to $0.96 after the company announced trial results evaluating gemcabene in NASH patients. Three of five patients showed decreases in TG levels while one patient discontinued treatment.

Shares of OncoCyte Corporation OCX 37.66% were down 39% to $2.4426 after the company announced it will need more time to complete its ongoing CLIA Validation study of DetermaVu.

Care.com, Inc. CRCM 18.67% was down, falling 18% to $11.54. Craig-Hallum downgraded Care.com from Buy to Hold.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.9% to $59.49, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,415.70.

Silver traded down 0.1% Wednesday to $15.29, while copper fell 1.2% to $2.702.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.31%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.03%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.34%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.14%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.25% while UK shares fell 0.08%.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders fell 1.3% for May, versus economists’ expectations for a 1% drop.

U.S. advanced trade deficit in goods increased 5.1% to $74.5 billion in May. Advanced U.S. wholesale inventories increased 0.4% in May, while retail inventories climbed 0.5% in May.

U.S. crude supplies fell 12.8 million barrels for the week ended June 21, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a drop of 2.8 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell 1 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles declined 2.4 million barrels.

The Treasury is set to auction 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.