Mid-Afternoon Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Lower; Zynga Shares Rise Following Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.10 percent to 17,634.45 while the NASDAQ declined 0.23 percent to 4,714.71. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.16 percent to 2,047.76. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Thursday, the energy sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Top gainers in the sector included Legacy Reserves LP LGCY, Ameresco Inc AMRC, and Continental Resources, Inc. CLR. In trading on Thursday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares fell by 0.53 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Zumiez Inc. ZUMZ, down 9 percent, and Kona Grill Inc KONA, down 15 percent. Top Headline Merck & Co., Inc. MRK reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, but missed analysts' sales estimates. The company's earnings advanced 21 percent to $0.40 a share from $0.33 a share in the corresponding quarter of the last year. Excluding special items, Merck's earnings would have increased 4.7 percent to $0.89 a share from $0.85 a share in the comparable period. The company's revenue fell 1 percent to $9.312 billion from $9.425 billion in the previous year quarter. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.85 per share on revenue of $9.46 billion. Equities Trading UP Synacor Inc SYNC shares shot up 123 percent to $3.15 following AT&T Inc. T contract. Shares of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. AAWW got a boost, shooting up 27 percent to $48.65 after the company disclosed that it would provide air cargo services to Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN to support package deliveries to its customers. The company also reported strong quarterly earnings. Zynga Inc ZNGA shares were also up, gaining 10 percent to $2.53 as the company reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter. Equities Trading DOWN Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc RRTS shares dropped 29 percent to $7.31 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results and lowered its outlook for FY16. Shares of Papa Murphy's Holdings Inc FRSH were down 26 percent to $9.17 after the company reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results. Fitbit Inc FIT was down, falling around 18 percent to $14.06. Fitbit reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter, but issued a weak guidance for the current quarter. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 0.87 percent to $44.16 while gold traded down 0.09 percent to $1,273.20. Silver traded up 0.05 percent Thursday to $17.31, while copper fell 1.92 percent to $2.14. Eurozone European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.32 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.41 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.07 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.24 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.11 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.09 percent. Economics Initial jobless claims rose 17,000 to 274,000 in the last week of April. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 260,000 in the week.