On The Fly: Top stock stories for Wednesday

Stocks opened close to fair value and remained little changed throughout the day. The averages moved in a narrow range as they consolidated following their record close last night. Oil prices rallied over 2% after recently struggling following the two hurricanes in the southern part of the country. The weekly Department of Energy inventory report showed a larger than expected build in supply, but it was not enough to unnerve the bulls, who pushed the price of crude above $49 a barrel. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the producer-price index rose 0.2% in August with the core rate up 0.1%, both of which were a bit below expectations. In Asia, Japan's PPI grew 2.9% year-over-year in August, representing its highest growth level since 2008. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Centene (CNC) advanced 8% after the health insurer announced last night a "highly accretive" acquisition of Fidelis Care for $3.75B. As other healthcare insurers like Aetna (AET), Anthem (ANTM) and UnitedHealth (UNH) step back from the Affordable Care Act's challenged insurance exchanges, Centene continues to execute on the ACA's public insurance exchange. Following the Fidelis deal, Centene will now have "leadership" position in the country's four largest managed care states by membership - California, Florida, New York and Texas. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Nordstrom (JWN), which rose 6% after CNBC reported that the family that controls the department store chain is close to a deal to choose private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners to help fund a "go private" deal. Also higher was Target (TGT), whose shares climbed nearly 3% after the company announced that it will hire significantly more seasonal workers this holiday season than last year. Among the noteworthy losers was Western Digital (WDC), which dropped over 3% after joint-venture partner Toshiba (TOSYY) said it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with a consortium lead by Bain Capital with the intent to negotiate a definitive agreement for the sale of Toshiba Memory Corporation by the end of this month. Also lower was USG (USG), which fell about 4.5% after chief executive officer Jennifer Scanlon said during an industry presentation that the consensus view for the company's Q3 earnings may be optimistic due to headwinds associated with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Additionally, iRobot (IRBT) slid over 15% after Shark officially announced its entrance into the robotic vacuum category with its ION device. INDEXES: The Dow rose 39.32, or 0.18%, to 22,158.18, the Nasdaq gained 5.91, or 0.09%, to 6,460.19, and the S&P 500 added 1.89, or 0.08%, to 2,498.37.