Mid-Day Market Update: Essendant Drops After Q3 Results; Achieve Life Sciences Shares Climb

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.47 percent to 23,439.90 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.13 percent to 6,572.39. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.26 percent to 2,563.70.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares surged 0.71 percent.

In trading on Thursday, healthcare shares fell 0.99 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Celgene Corporation CELG, down 18 percent, and Anika Therapeutics Inc ANIK down 11 percent.

Top Headline

Twitter Inc TWTR reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Twitter earned 10 cents per share in the third quarter on revenue of $590 million. Wall Street analysts were expecting the social media company to earn seven cents per share on revenue of $568 million.

Equities Trading UP

Achieve Life Sciences Inc ACHV shares shot up 34 percent to $2.54 after the company disclosed an exclusive and long-term manufacturing agreement with Sopharma for the clinical and commercial supply of cytisine.

Shares of Cumulus Media Inc CMLS got a boost, shooting up 80 percent to $0.550 after the company issued a strong sales forecast for the third quarter.

MYOS RENS Technology Inc MYOS shares were also up, gaining 50 percent to $2.23. MYOS RENS announced a $75 million mixed securities shelf offering Wednesday afternoon and also issued release highlighting partnership with NFL Alumni's Pro Football Legends arm to support Optimal Bowl and Wellness Challenge.

Equities Trading DOWN

Atossa Genetics Inc ATOS shares dropped 46 percent to $0.455. Atossa Genetics priced 11.5 million shares at $0.44 per share.

Shares of Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc IDRA were down 28 percent to $1.45. Idera Pharmaceuticals priced its 33.33 million share offering at $1.50 per share.

Essendant Inc ESND was down, falling around 17 percent to $10.42 after the company reported weak Q3 results and FY17 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.27 percent to $52.04 while gold traded down 0.23 percent to $1,276.00.

Silver traded up 0.03 percent Thursday to $16.93, while copper fell 0.42 percent to $3.1695.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.71 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.90 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 1.27 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.62 percent, and the French CAC 40 surged 0.88 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.41 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial weekly jobless claims increased 10,000 to 233,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 235,000 last week.

U.S. trade deficit in goods increased 1.3 percent to $64.1 billion in September versus $63.3 billion. Imports gained $1.7 billion to $193.7 billion in September, while exports climbed $900 million to $129.6 billion.

The pending home sales index came in unchanged at 106 for September, versus a downwardly-revised reading for August. However, economists were expecting a 0.2 percent growth.

Domestic supplies of natural gas gained 64 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 20, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a gain of 65 billion cubic feet.

The Treasury is set to auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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