Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Rise; General Motors Earnings Miss Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.54 percent to 15,524.23 while the NASDAQ surged 0.70 percent to 4,039.79. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.56 percent to 1,761.41.

Top Headline
General Motors Co GM reported a 13% drop in its fourth-quarter profit. GM's quarterly profit declined to $1.04 billion, or $0.57 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $1.19 billion, or $0.54 per share. Its adjusted earnings came in at $0.67 per share. Its revenue climbed to $40.5 billion versus $39.3 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.88 per share on revenue of $40.79 billion.

Equities Trading UP
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters GMCR shot up 34.89 percent to $109.10 after Coca-Cola Company KO announced its plans to acquire a 10% stake in Green Mountain for $1.25 billion. Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Green Mountain from Sell to Hold.

Shares of Akamai Technologies AKAM got a boost, shooting up 18.75 percent to $56.31 on stronger-than-expected Q4 results.

Synchronoss Technologies SNCR was also up, gaining 18.67 percent to $31.65 after the company reported upbeat Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Twitter TWTR were down 22.92 percent to $50.85 after the company reported Q4 results. UBS downgraded the stock from Neutral to Sell and cut the price target from $45.00 to $42.00

Education Management EDMC shares tumbled 10.50 percent to $5.54 after the company reported downbeat Q2 revenue and lowered its FY14 earnings outlook.

Affymetrix AFFX was down, falling 11.63 percent to $7.37 after the company reported Q4 results.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.14 percent to $98.49, while gold traded up 0.39 percent to $1,261.80.

Silver traded up 1.29 percent Thursday to $20.06, while copper rose 0.75 percent to $3.21.

Eurozone
European shares were higher today.

The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.72 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.77 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX climbed 0.50 percent and the French CAC 40 gained 0.52 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.79 percent.

Economics
U.S. initial jobless claims dropped by 20,000 to 331,000 in the week ended February 1, versus a revised 351,000 in the earlier week. However, economists were estimating claims to reach 335,000.

U.S. trade deficit widened 12% to $38.7 billion, versus a revised $34.6 billion in November. However, economists were expecting a deficit of $36 billion.

U.S. productivity rose at an annual rate of 3.2% in the fourth quarter, versus a revised 3.6% increase in the third quarter. However, economists were projecting productivity to climb 2.8%.

Unit-labor costs dropped 1.6% in the period, versus economists' expectations for a 0.7% decline.

Announced layoffs surged to more than 45,000 in January, versus around 31,000 in December, outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index declined to -33.10 for the week ended February 2, versus a prior reading of -31.80.

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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Posted In: EarningsNewsGuidanceEurozoneFuturesForexGlobalEcon #sEconomicsIntraday UpdateMarketsMoversTech
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