Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Facebook Beats Q4 Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.13 percent to 19,866.00 while the NASDAQ declined 0.14 percent to 5,634.76. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.17 percent to 2,275.62.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares rose by 0.80 percent in trading on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Mead Johnson Nutrition CO MJN, and BRF SA (ADR) BRFS.

In trading on Thursday, healthcare shares slipped by 0.64 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Edwards Lifesciences Corp EW, down 10 percent, and AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMAG, down 13 percent.

Top Headline

Facebook Inc FB reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Wednesday.

Facebook reported Q4 EPS of $1.41, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.31. Its revenue came in at $8.629 billion, beating expectations of $8.51 billion. Facebook’s mobile daily active users climbed 23 percent to 1.15 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Mead Johnson Nutrition CO MJN shares shot up 24 percent to $86.48. Reckitt Benckiser Group confirmed to Reuters it's in talks to acquire Mead Johnson Nutrition for $90 per share in cash or approximately $16.7 billion.

Shares of Celadon Group, Inc. CGI got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $8.80 after the company posted better-than-expected Q2 results.

Weatherford International Plc WFT shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $5.85 after the company posted a narrower-than-expected Q4 loss.

Equities Trading DOWN

Resolute Forest Products Inc RFP shares dropped 22 percent to $4.25. Resolute reported a Q4 net loss of $45 million, or $0.50 per share, versus a year-ago net loss of $214 million , or $2.39 per share.

Shares of Shutterfly, Inc. SFLY were down around 16 percent to $43.44 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

Corium International Inc CORI was down, falling around 15 percent to $3.13. Corium priced its follow-on offering of 6.66 million shares of common stock at $3 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.35 percent to $54.07 while gold traded up 1.56 percent to $1,227.10.

Silver traded up 1.49 percent Thursday to $17.71, while copper fell 1.44 percent to $2.67.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.17 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.87 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.22 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.27 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.08 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.60 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims dropped 14,000 to 246,000 in the latest week. Economists were expecting initial claims to reach 250,000 in the week.

Non-farm productivity rose at an annual pace of 1.3 percent for the fourth quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 1 percent growth.

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.