Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Rising; La-Z Boy Takes a Beating

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.23 percent to 13,015.60 while the NASDAQ rose 0.63 percent to 3,010.70. The S&P also rose, rallying 0.38 percent to 1,415.32. Top Headline
Retail sales were reported this morning, coming at 1.6 percent, below the expected 3.5 percent. This sent the XRT, the retail ETF, down following the market opening. Equities Trading Up
Infoblox BLOX shot up 35.48 percent to $18.90 following the market opening after the company posted earnings. Shares of Semtech SMTC saw an 11.88 percent boost to $27.88 following a solid earnings report and an increase in price target by Citigroup. Hero Offshore HERO was also up, gaining 8.28 percent to $5.04 following a fleet status report the company filed Wednesday night. Equities Trading Down
Liquidity Services LQDT dropped 16.14 percent to $36.67 percent after the company beat on earnings but missed by almost 10 percent on revenue in its report Thursday morning. La-Z-Boy Incorporated LZB fell 11.19 percent to $14.36 after the company beat on revenue but missed on earnings Thursday morning. Shares of Barnes & Noble BKS were also down, falling 11.71 percent to $14.17 after posting a revenue miss before the market opening Thursday. Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.79 percent to $88.04, while gold traded up 1.36 percent to $1,739.80. Silver traded up 0.54 percent Thursday to $34.22. Eurozone
In Europe this morning, German unemployment increased by 5,000 in November, well below the expected increase of 15,000, but was still seen as a bad sign as this is the eighth consecutive month of unemployment increases. European markets rose this morning, riding a wave of confidence from positive comments out of Washington yesterday. Economics
In economic news, GDP came in at 2.7 percent, just below the expected 2.8 percent, but above the previous report of 2.0 percent, while the GDP price index came in at 2.7 percent, below the expected 2.8 percent and the prior release of 2.9 percent. Initial jobless claims were also reported, coming in at 393 thousand, slightly above the 390 thousand expected, but below the prior report of 410 thousand. Continuing claims came in at 3.28 million, below the projected 3.325 million and the previous release of 3.337 million. Pending home sales came in at 18.0 percent, far above the projected 8.9 percent and the prior release of 8.5 percent.