Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; BlackBerry Co-Founder Lowers Stake

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.43 percent to 16,427.99 while the NASDAQ surged 0.10 percent to 4,159.41. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.22 percent to 1,837.40.

Top Headline
On Tuesday, BlackBerry BBRY co-founder Michael Lazaridis lowered his stake in the company to just below 5% versus 5.7%.

BlackBerry posted a Q3 loss of $4.4 billion last week.

Equities Trading UP
Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP EROC shot up 3.78 percent to $6.59 after Raymond James upgraded the stock from Underperform to Market Perform.

Shares of Twitter

TWTR

got a boost, shooting up 3.56 percent to $72.45 after gaining for three trading days. Twitter shares surged to a new high today.

DryShips DRYS was also up, gaining 8.39 percent to $4.52 after jumping 6.1% on Tuesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Shares of Goodrich Petroleum

GDP

were down 6.65 percent to $16.15

following the news

of plugging at Tuscaloosa Marine Shale.

Opko Health OPK tumbled 1.99 percent to $8.86. Opko Health shares have surged 93.16% over the past 52 weeks. Capital Senior Living CSU was down, falling 1.64 percent to $23.43 after the company reported that it has completed the acquisition of four senior living communities for $64.9 million.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.18 percent to $99.40, while gold traded up 0.76 percent to $1,212.40.

Silver traded up 1.98 percent Thursday to $19.87, while copper rose 0.30 percent to $3.38.

Eurozone
European markets were closed today in observance of Boxing Day.

Economics

U.S. jobless claims declined 42,000 to 338,000 in the week ended December 21, versus economists' expectations for a 345,000.drop. Continuing claims rose 46,000 to 2.92 million in the week ended December 14.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to -27.40 in the week ended December 22, versus a prior reading of -29.40.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills.

Data on money supply will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

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Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; BlackBerry Co-Founder Lowers Stake