Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Twitter Tops Q4 Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.53 percent to 24,762.61 while the NASDAQ declined 0.16 percent to 7,040.60. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.26 percent to 2,674.58.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed 0.52 percent.

In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares tumbled 0.42 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Domtar Corp (USA) UFS, down 8 percent, and Gold Fields Limited (ADR) GFI down 5 percent.

Top Headline

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

Twitter said it earned 19 cents per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $732 million, which came in ahead of the Street's expectations of 14 cents per share on revenue of $686 million. The company said its total monthly active users (MAU) base was unchanged from the prior quarter at 330 million and up 4 percent from a year ago. Average daily active users (DAU) rose 12 percent year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

NXT-ID Inc NXTD shares shot up 29 percent to $2.58. NXT-ID’s subsidiary Fit Pay announced FlipTM - a contactless payment device for cryptocurrencies.

Shares of GrubHub Inc GRUB got a boost, shooting up 27 percent to $89.01 after reporting upbeat quarterly results.

Twitter Inc TWTR shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $33.18 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Collectors Universe, Inc. CLCT shares dropped 40 percent to $16.05. Collectors Universe reported Q2 earnings from continuing operations of $0.01 per share on revenue of $14.1 million.

Shares of Quantum Corp QTM were down 29 percent to $3.98. Quantum reported that it is postponing Q3 results and its conference call, which were scheduled for this afternoon.

iRobot Corporation IRBT was down, falling around 28 percent to $63.19. iRobot reported better-than-expected revenue for its fourth quarter, but issued weak FY18 earnings guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.97 percent to $61.19 while gold traded up 0.02 percent to $1,314.80.

Silver traded up 0.50 percent Thursday to $16.32, while copper rose 0.24 percent to $3.095.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.40 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.89 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.05 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.70 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.94 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims slipped 9,000 to 221,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a reading of 236,000.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George will speak in Wichita, Kansas at 9:00 p.m. ET.