On The Fly: Top stock stories for Wednesday

Stocks advanced on Wednesday as oil jumped amid a report that major oil producing nations may have reached a deal to reduce their production. Additionally, the Senate cleared a bill to fund the government and avoid a shutdown until at least after the presidential election. The measure, which would fund the federal government through December 9, is expected to be approved by the House later today. ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., orders for durable goods were unchanged in August. When excluding transportation products, sales declined 0.4%, which was roughly in-line with expectations. Crude oil inventories showed a 1.88M drawdown last week, versus the consensus forecast for a 3.0M barrel build-up. Meeting in Algiers, OPEC members tentatively agreed to reduce their oil output beginning in November, according to a report by Reuters. An unnamed delegate claims that the group agreed to limit production to 32.5 million barrels a day, sending oil prices up sharply late in the day. COMPANY NEWS: Wells Fargo (WFC) CEO John Stumpf will forfeit much of his 2016 salary, including his bonus and $41M in unvested equity, as the company's independent directors launch an investigation into its retail banking practices. Meanwhile, California's State Treasurer announced a sweeping suspension of business relationships with the bank as punishment for the company's defrauding of customers... Shares of BlackBerry (BBRY) gained 5.7% to $8.33 after the company reported its quarterly results, gave a more upbeat view on its estimate for potential losses this fiscal year, and announced CFO James Yersh is leaving the company for personal reasons. Additionally, BlackBerry said it will stop in-house development of phones and outsource its hardware efforts to its partners... Shares of Nike (NKE) dropped 3.8% to $53.25 after the company's future orders missed analysts' estimates for the third time in a row. Nonetheless, Nike announced better than expected quarterly revenue and profit. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Harmonic (HLIT), which advanced 25% after announcing it has entered into a warrant agreement with Comcast (CMCSA, CMCSK) that provides the latter with the opportunity to acquire shares of common stock of Harmonic. Also higher was Dillard's (DDS), which gained 5% after Credit Suisse analyst Michael Exstein upgraded the stock to Outperform from Neutral, citing the company's consistency in capital allocation and its valuation, which he says is at the low end of its historic trading range. Among the noteworthy losers was National Beverage (FIZZ), which dropped more than 8% after Glaucus Research Group said it is short on the stock, making allegations that the company, which owns the LaCroix sparkling water brand, may be "manipulating" its profit figures. In response, National Beverage said the report was intended to "severely manipulate" its stock price in support of short sellers, whose short position has "dramatically increased" over recent weeks. "The allegations in this 'report' are untrue and are based on allegations made in a complaint for the purpose of extorting money from the company," National Beverage added. Also lower was Sonic (SONC), which slipped 7.3% after reporting weaker than expected preliminary fourth quarter results. Additionally, Tempur Sealy (TPX) dropped over 22% after the company said third quarter revenue will be below its previous expectations and that revenue this fiscal year will be 1%-3% lower than fiscal 2015. INDEXES: The Dow rose 110.94, or 0.61%, to 18,339.24, the Nasdaq gained 12.84, or 0.24%, to 5,318.55, and the S&P 500 advanced 11.44, or 0.53%, to 2,171.37.