Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 1.25%; Alcobra Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.10 percent to 23,134.42 while the NASDAQ declined 0.51 percent to 6,590.67. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.09 percent to 2,558.84.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the utilities shares surged 0.49 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Korea Electric Power Corporation (ADR) KEP, up 3 percent, and Pure Cycle Corporation PCYO, up 2 percent.

In trading on Thursday, technology shares fell 0.55 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Internap Corp INAP, down 6 percent, and Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) BITA down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ posted better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Verizon posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.98 per share on revenue of $31.71 billion. However, analysts expected earnings of $0.98 per share on revenue of $31.45 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Uniqure NV QURE shares shot up 55 percent to $14.69. uniQure disclosed that it has acquired a patent family providing broad protection of the hyperactive padua variant of Factor IX.

Shares of Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Inc IMMY got a boost, shooting up 40 percent to $2.04 after the company announced Thursday the release of a 99-cent alternative to Allergan PLC AGN's Restasis to address the 30 million Americans suffering from Dry Eye Disease.

Alcobra Ltd ADHD shares were also up, gaining 26 percent to $1.60 as the company reported a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation to discover and develop RNA medicines.

Equities Trading DOWN

Ocean Power Technologies Inc OPTT shares dropped 33 percent to $1.34. Ocean Power Technologies priced its 5,739,437 share common stock offering at $1.42 per share.

Shares of Earthstone Energy Inc ESTE were down 15 percent to $8.98. Earthstone Energy priced an underwritten public offering of 4,500,000 shares of its Class A common stock at $9.25 per share.

Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc IMNP was down, falling around 39 percent to $0.930. Immune Pharmaceuticals priced an underwritten public offering of convertible preferred stock and warrants for gross proceeds of $18,000,000.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.25 percent to $51.39 while gold traded up 0.54 percent to $1,289.90.

Silver traded up 1.52 percent Thursday to $17.255, while copper fell 0.35 percent to $3.167.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.63 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.74 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.99 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.41 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.29 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.26 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims declined 22,000 to 222,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 240,000 last week.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose 4.1 points to 27.9 in October. Economists projected a reading of 20.

The index of leading economic indicators declined 0.2 percent for September.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 51 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 13, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a gain of 55 billion cubic feet.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.