Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Yum! Brands Sales Miss Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.64 percent to 18,164.68 while the NASDAQ declined 0.50 percent to 5,289.41. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.36 percent to 2,151.97.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, energy shares gained by 0.50 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Contango Oil & Gas Company MCF, and CGG SA (ADR) CGG.

In trading on Thursday, healthcare shares tumbled by 0.86 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALNY, down 47 percent, and The Medicines Company MDCO, down 16 percent.

Top Headline

On Wednesday, Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM reported in-line earnings for its third quarter, but revenue missed estimates.

While EPS of $1.09 were in-line with the Street’s consensus, revenue of $3.32 billion missed estimates by $200 million.

Equities Trading UP

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc AUPH shares shot up 36 percent to $5.51 after the company disclosed 24-week data from the AURION study.

Shares of PhotoMedex Inc PHMD got a boost, shooting up 31 percent to $1.51 after ICTV Brands, Inc agreed to acquire the consumer products business of PhotoMedex for $9.5 million.

Zumiez Inc. ZUMZ shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $20.88. Zumiez reported an 11.5 percent rise in its Septmber sales and raised its Q3 revenue guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALNY shares dropped 47 percent to $37.17 after the company disclosed that it has decided to discontinue the Revusiran development. Leerink Swann downgrades Alnylam Pharmaceuticals from Outperform to Market Perform and lowered the price target from $107.00 to $40.00, while Barclays also downgraded the stock from Overweight to Equal-weight and lowered the price target from $85.00 to $50.00.

Shares of Inventergy Global Inc INVT were down 30 percent to $0.870. Inventergy priced its 6 million share offering at $1 per share.

Twitter Inc TWTR was down, falling around 16 percent to $20.86 after Recode reported that Google GOOGL, Apple Inc. AAPL and Walt Disney Co DIS are not interested in buying the social media company.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.86 percent to $50.26 while gold traded down 0.99 percent to $1,256.10.

Silver traded down 1.47 percent Thursday to $17.44, while copper fell 0.69 percent to $2.15.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.20 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.32 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.50 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.03 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.13 percent.

Economics

U.S. jobless claims declined 5,000 to 249,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 256,000 in the week.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.