Market Recap: Oil Jumps, Staples Shares Tank, Abercrombie & Fitch Loves the Summer

Markets closed mixed on Wall Street today: Dow -0.06%, S&P +0.11%, Nasdaq +0.46%, Oil +0.84%, Gold +0.26%.

On the commodities front, Oil (NYSE:USO) rose to $94.21 a barrel. Precious metals also increased, with Gold (NYSE:GLD) rising to $1,606 an ounce while Silver (NYSE:SLV) rose 0.04% to settle at $27.81.

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to today’s top stock stories:

JDS Uniphase Corporation’s (NASDAQ:JDSU) shares jumped 10 percent after reporting its quarterly results on Tuesday. Even with the company’s loss, numbers were better than expected. JDS spurred some optimism for improved network demand.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s (NYSE:ANF) shares increased 9 percent after the company announced an increase in its existing share buyback plan by 10 million shares. It also said to investors that its inventory position improved a lot by the second quarter’s end.

On the down side, Deere & Co. (NYSE:DE) shares dropped 6.3 percent after the company reported an 11 percent rise in third-quarter earnings to a record high $788 million ($1.98 a share) up from the previous year’s $712.3 million ($1.69 a share). Quarterly revenue rose 15 percent to $9.59 billion. But this came in below analysts estimates of $2.31 earnings per share on $9.614 billion in revenues.

Staples Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLS) shares tanked 15 percent after the company reported its second quarter results. Earnings dropped 32 percent from the previous year thanks to a tax refund as an international sales decline contributed to a bigger-than-expected sales drop off. The company cut its full-year forecast and now sees flat sales with the previous year and per-share earnings to rise in the low single-digits percentage.

Canadian Solar Inc.’s (NASDAQ:CSIQ) shares dropped 11 percent after the company announced a second-quarter loss on Wednesday. It also said that discounted selling prices affected the company even with higher sales volumes in its solar equipment and panels.