Mid-Day Market Update: US Markets Turn Lower; Twitter Shares Fall On Analyst Downgrade

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.02 percent to 16,477.38 while the NASDAQ declined 0.20 percent to 4,158.96. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.04 percent to 1,841.37.

Yesterday, Textron

agreed to buy acquire Beechcraft for around $1.4 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2014. In 2013, Beechcraft has around $1.8 billion in expected revenue.

Shares of Textron

got a boost, shooting up 1.57 percent to $36.77 after the company agreed to buy acquire Beechcraft for around $1.4 billion in cash. Westlake Chemical

shot up 2.14 percent to $120.83 after analysts at Susquehanna upgraded the stock from Neutral to Positive and lifted the target price from $118 to $145. Organovo Holdings

was also up, gaining 2.98 percent to $9.32. The rise in the shares may be attributed to Thursday's Computerworld Article on 3D printed liver coming in 2014.

Shares of Twitter

were down 6.27 percent to $68.71 after Macquarie downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underperform. Textura

tumbled 6.15 percent to $29.38. Textura shares tumbled 17.06 percent yesterday after Citron Research issued a scathing report on the company midway through the morning Thursday. Ariad Pharmaceuticals

was down, falling 6.29 percent to $6.56. Ariad shares have dropped 63.95 percent over the past 52 weeks.

In commodity news,

to $100.31, while gold traded up 0.14 percent to $1,214.00. Silver traded up 0.55 percent Friday to $20.03, while copper fell 0.26 percent to $3.39.

European shares

today. The Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.82 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.39 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 1.06 percent and the French CAC 40 jumped 1.40 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.85 percent.

US crude oil inventories fell by 4.7 million barrels for the week ending December 20, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were projecting a drop of 2.3 million barrels. Gasoline inventories dropped by 600,000 barrels, versus analysts' expectations for a 1.2 million barrels gain.