Crude Oil Jumps 5%; Automatic Data Processing Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 0.1% on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.38% to 48,955.51 while the NASDAQ rose 0.09% to 24,685.88. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.01% to 7,139.48.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 1.2% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, health care stocks fell by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) reported better-than-expected third-quarter financial results.

Automatic Data Processing posted adjusted EPS of $3.37, beating market estimates of $3.29. The company's sales came in at $5.939 billion versus estimates of $5.852 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

• SAGTEC GLOBAL Ltd (NASDAQ:SAGT) shares shot up 40% to $2.38 after the company reported fourth-quarter financial results.
• Shares of X T L Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (NASDAQ:XTLB) got a boost, surging 56% to $3.59 after the company announced it signed an agreement to be acquired by Psyga Bio.
• Kalvista Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:KALV) shares were also up, gaining 39% to $26.71 after the company announced it will be acquired by Chiesi Group.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Sangamo Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SGMO) shares dropped 30% to $0.14 after the company announced transition to trading on OTCQB Venture Market.
• Shares of Merlin Inc (NASDAQ:MRLN) were down 18% to $9.45 after the company announced a $80 million PIPE investment.
• Teradyne Inc (NASDAQ:TER) was down, falling 14% to $326.50 following first-quarter results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 4.9% to $104.82 while gold traded down 1.5% at $4,537.40.

Silver traded down 1.4% to $72.220 on Wednesday, while copper fell 0.4% to $5.9525.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.7%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.8%. London's FTSE 100 fell 1.3%, Germany's DAX fell 0.4% and France's CAC 40 slipped 0.6% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.71%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surging 1.68% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.79%.

Economics

• U.S. wholesale inventories rose by 1.4% month-over-month to $932.8 billion in March, compared to a revised 0.9% gain in February.
• The goods deficit increased to $87.9 billion in March from $83.5 billion in the previous month and versus market estimates of an $87 billion gap.
• U.S. durable goods orders increased by 0.8% from the previous month to $318.9 billion in March versus a 1.2% decline in the previous month.
• U.S. housing starts rose 10.8% month-over-month to an annual rate of 1.502 million in March, compared to market estimates of 1.40 million.
• U.S. building permits declined 10.8% month-over-month in March to an annual rate of 1.372 million.
• U.S. mortgage applications declined by 1.6% from the previous week in the week ending April 24, following a 7.9% gain from the earlier period.
• U.S. crude inventories declined by 6.233 million barrels to 459.5 million barrels in the week ended April 24, versus market estimates of a 0.2 million barrel decline.

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