Mid-Day Market Update: ANN Surges On Analyst Upgrade; DryShips Shares Decline

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.61 percent to 16,475.39 while the NASDAQ declined 0.76 percent to 4,144.77. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.69 percent to 1,835.58.

Top Headline
Fiat SpA FIATY announced its plans to buy the rest of the Chrysler Group LLC for $3.65 billion.

Fiat already owns 58.5% stock of Chrysler. Fiat projects the deal to complete on January 20.

Equities Trading UP
Shares of Molycorp MCP got a boost, shooting up 4.57 percent to $5.88 after DA Davidson lifted the price target on the stock from $6.00 to $8.00.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals

ARIA

shot up 13.34 percent to $7.73. ARIAD will present at the

JP Morgan Healthcare Conference

on January 14 at 6:00 PM ET.

ANN ANN was also up, gaining 5.69 percent to $38.64 after analysts at Jefferies upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy.

Equities Trading DOWN

Shares of DryShips

DRYS

were down 6.60 percent to $4.39 after the company

announced the resumption

of at the $200 million market equity offering.

Intersil ISIL tumbled 3.93 percent to $11.02 after Evercore Partners downgraded the stock from Equal-Weight to Underweight.

Texas Industries

TXI

was down, falling 5.28 percent to $65.15 after Longbow Research downgraded the stock from buy to neutral.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 2.06 percent to $96.39, while gold traded up 1.89 percent to $1,225.00.

Silver traded up 3.77 percent Thursday to $20.10, while copper fell 0.35 percent to $3.38.

Eurozone
European shares were lower today. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.31 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.05 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.32 percent and the French CAC 40 fell 1.60 percent while U.K. shares declined 0.36 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 339,000 in the week ended December 28. However, economists were expecting claims to total 344,000 in the week.

The final reading for the manufacturing PMI surged to 55 in December, versus November's reading of 54.7. However, economists were expecting a reading of 54.7.

The ISM manufacturing index fell to 57.00 in December, versus a prior reading of 57.30. However, economists were expecting a reading of 56.80.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index declined to-28.70 for the week ended December 29, versus a prior reading of -27.40.

U.S. construction spending rose 1.00% in November, versus economists' expectations for a 0.60% gain.

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

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