Mid-Day Market Update: Heritage-Crystal Clean Drops On Weak Q3 Results; Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Shares Surge

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.33 percent to 23,082.05 while the NASDAQ declined 0.75 percent to 6,574.58. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.34 percent to 2,552.51. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Thursday, the telecommunications services shares surged 0.35 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included B Communications Ltd BCOM, up 9 percent, and Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (ADR) IIJI, up 3 percent. In trading on Thursday, technology shares fell 0.70 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Ultra Clean Holdings Inc UCTT, down 6 percent, and Microvision, Inc. MVIS down 5 percent. Top Headline Verizon Communications Inc. VZ posted better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter. Verizon posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.98 per share on revenue of $31.71 billion. However, analysts expected earnings of $0.98 per share on revenue of $31.45 billion. Equities Trading UP Uniqure NV QURE shares shot up 60 percent to $15.16. uniQure disclosed that it has acquired a patent family providing broad protection of the hyperactive padua variant of Factor IX. Shares of Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Inc IMMY got a boost, shooting up 63 percent to $2.38 after the company announced Thursday the release of a 99-cent alternative to Allergan PLC AGN's Restasis to address the 30 million Americans suffering from Dry Eye Disease. Alcobra Ltd ADHD shares were also up, gaining 38 percent to $1.75 as the company reported a cllaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation to discover and develop RNA medicines. Equities Trading DOWN Ocean Power Technologies Inc OPTT shares dropped 35 percent to $1.30. Ocean Power Technologies priced its 5,739,437 share common stock offering at $1.42 per share. Shares of Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. HCCI were down 15 percent to $18.35 after the company reported weak Q3 results. Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc IMNP was down, falling around 40 percent to $0.910. Immune Pharmaceuticals priced an underwritten public offering of convertible preferred stock and warrants for gross proceeds of $18,000,000. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 1.21 percent to $51.41 while gold traded up 0.41 percent to $1,288.20. Silver traded up 0.40 percent Thursday to $17.065, while copper fell 0.60 percent to $3.159. Eurozone European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 dropped 0.78 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.75 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index dipped 1.30 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.58 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.48 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.26 percent. Economics Initial jobless claims declined 22,000 to 222,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 240,000 last week. The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose 4.1 points to 27.9 in October. Economists projected a reading of 20. The index of leading economic indicators declined 0.2 percent for September. Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.