Stock Market News For August 11, 2016

Benchmarks ended in the red on Wednesday following a decline in crude prices after the EIA reported an increase in U.S. crude inventories last week. Slump in oil prices weighed on energy stocks, which in turn had a negative impact on investor sentiment. Moreover, investors digested a number of earnings results from companies including Perrigo, JD.com and Disney.

For a look at the issues currently facing the markets, make sure to read today’s Ahead of Wall Street article.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) decreased 0.2%, to close at 18,495.66. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% to close at 2,175.49. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 5,204.59 losing 0.4%. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) increased 7% to settle at 12.5. A total of around 5.92 billion shares were traded on Wednesday, higher than the last 20-session average of 6.45 billion shares. Decliners outpaced advancing stocks on the NYSE. For 43% stocks that declined, 54% advanced.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported an increase in crude inventories. EIA reported that the U.S. commercial crude oil inventories rose 1.1 million barrels to 523.6 million for the week ended August 5. This was in contrast to analysts' projections of a decrease of 1.75 million barrels.

Moreover, one of the key members of OPEC, Saudi Arabia, said that its crude output reached 10.67 million barrels per day last month, the highest since June 2015. Both WTI and Brent crude fell 2.5% and 2.1% to $41.71 per barrel and $44.05 a barrel, respectively, ending at their lowest level since August 3.

Decrease in oil prices led the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE (NYSE:XLE)) to fall 1.1%, which emerged as the worst performer among the S&P 500 sectors. Some of its components, including, Transocean Ltd (NYSE:RIG). (RIG), Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE:DO), Inc. (DO), Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) (MRO), Apache Corp (NYSE:APA). ( APA) and Spectra Energy Corp (NYSE:SE). (SE) fell 6.8%, 3.7%, 3.1%, 2.9% and 2.1%, respectively. Dow components Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (XOM) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (CVX) declined 2.6% and 1.2%, respectively.

In earnings results, Perrigo Company plc’s (PRGO) slumped 9.6% after the company reported second quarter earnings per share of $1.93 per share which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.00 and declined 11% from the year-ago figure. Net sales also declined 3% to $1.48 billion but managed to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.44 billion. Perrigo was second biggest decliner among the S&P 500 companies.

However, shares of JD.com, Inc. (JD) increased 4.7% after the company announced second quarter loss and revenue of $0.03 per share and $9,816 million, better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.07 decline and $9,810 million, respectively. Gains in JD.com had a positive impact on the Nasdaq.

Additionally, Dow component, Walt Disney Company’s (DIS) shares rose 1.2% after the company declared fiscal third quarter earnings per share of $1.62, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a cent and increased 11.7% year over year. Revenues improved 9% year over year to $14,277 million and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $14,167 million.

The company also announced that it purchased a minority stake in BAMTech, a video streaming company originally created by Major League Baseball. The media giant will spend $1 billion for 33% of BAMTech, with the option to purchase a majority stake at a later date. Walt Disney was the biggest advancing company in the blue-chip index.