Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 2%; Metaldyne Performance Group Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.03 percent to 17,955.00 while the NASDAQ declined 0.70 percent to 5,069.68. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.28 percent to 2,092.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, basic materials shares gained by 0.50 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ternium SA (ADR) TX, and FMC Corp FMC.

In trading on Thursday, technology shares fell by 0.39 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Points International Ltd (USA) PCOM, down 19 percent, and Perficient, Inc. PRFT, down 10 percent.

Top Headline

Facebook Inc FB posted better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter on Wednesday. However, the company’s CFO warned that revenue growth rates would decline in the fourth quarter.

The social media giant reported non-GAAP earnings of $1.09 a share on revenue of $7 billion, which topped Street view of $0.97 on revenue of $6.92 billion. The company delivered 59 percent growth in ad revenues and showed meaningful margin beat.

Equities Trading UP

Metaldyne Performance Group Inc MPG shares shot up 40 percent to $20.05 after American Axle & Manufact. Holdings, Inc. AXL announced acquisition of the company for $1.6 billion in cash and $1.7 billion assumed debt. MPG reported Q3 earnings of $0.33 per share on revenue of $676 million.

Shares of Inteliquent Inc IQNT got a boost, shooting up 35 percent to $22.61 after the company agreed to be acquired by GTCR for $23.00 per share in cash.

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. CCRN shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $14.08 after the company posted upbeat Q3 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

AAC Holdings Inc AAC shares dropped 50 percent to $8.00 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results and issued a weak FY16 outlook.

Shares of Trillium Therapeutics Inc. TRIL were down 51 percent to $7.13 after safety concerns with lead cancer drug TTI-621 were earlier disclosed in abstract.

Fitbit Inc FIT was down, falling around 34 percent to $8.48 after the company posted downbeat quarterly revenue and issued a weak forecast the current quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.01 percent to $44.43 while gold traded down 0.49 percent to $1,302.00.

Silver traded down 1.86 percent Thursday to $18.35, while copper rose 0.76 percent to $2.25.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.01 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.07 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.33 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.43 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.07 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.80 percent.

Economics

U.S jobless claims increased 7,000 to 265,000 in the latest week. However, economists were projecting claims to reach 258,000 in the week.

Productivity rose at an annual rate of 3.1 percent pace in the third quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 2 percent growth. Unit-labor costs rose 0.3 percent in the quarter.

U.S. factory orders rose 0.30 percent for September, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.20 percent growth.

The ISM non-manufacturing index dropped to 54.80 in October, versus a prior reading of 57.10. Economists projected a reading of 56.00.

Supplies of natural gas increased 54 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 28, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a rise of 57 billion cubic foot.

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