U.S. markets were flat in midday trading Thursday, as oil prices began to slip after the Energy Information Administration revealed that crude stockpiles last month fell by 2.2 million barrels, slightly under consensus forecasts.
Oil prices were down about 3.3% in midday trading, to about $45.86 a barrel, based on U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate, erasing gains over the past two days.
The S&P 500 was roughly even in midday trading, as the Dow Jones industrials were down about 0.1% and the Nasdaq was up nearly 0.3%.
Solar panel manufacturer First Solar (FSLR), was trading down more than 9% after analysts at Deutsche Bank cut their rating on the stock to Hold from Buy, and slashed their price target to $44 from $80.
First Solar has been off to a difficult 2016, with shares down more than 33% so far on the year.
Meanwhile, chip maker Micron Technology (MU) and data storage maker Seagate Technology (STX) climbed 5% and 2%, respectively, following industry peer Western Digital's (WDC) preliminary quarterly earnings beat and positive guidance for the flash-memory market for the remainder of the year.
Action Alerts PLUS holding Costco (COST) also climbed nearly 5% in midday trading, after analysts at RBC projected that the discount warehouse likely outperformed industry peers in terms of same-store sales for June. (RBC maintains an Outperform rating on Costco stock, and a $173 price target.)
--Written by James Passeri
