Mid-Day Report

Crude oil prices retreated as the nation's inventory of oil rose to lift the markets higher during the midday with the Dow gaining 15 points to 11,631. Nasdaq climbed 20 points to 2369.

On the upside

BP (NYSE: BP) will invest $90 million in Verenium (Nasdaq: VRNM) to jointly develop next generation biofuels. Analysts upgraded Verenium.

Citi Investment Research analyst John Hill added Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) to his list of top picks.

Shares of Frontier Oil (NYSE: FTO) climbed ahead of its earnings release tomorrow.

On the downside

Internap Network Services (Nasdaq: INAP) widened second quarter losses as expenses rose. The company lowered its full year outlook prompting a downgrade.

An analyst downgraded Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI) after the company reported lower third quarter earnings, cut its guidance and suspended its dividend.

Spring Nextel (NYSE: S) announced plans to sell $3 billion in perpetual convertible preferred stock.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by nearly 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a point to 720.