Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Tumbles Over 500 Points; Infinera Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 2.05 percent to 24,383.26 while the NASDAQ declined 2.03 percent to 6,908.96. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.81 percent to 2,633.07.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the utilities shares slipped by just 0.09 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Connecticut Water Service Inc CTWS, up 2 percent, and RGC Resources Inc. RGCO, up 4 percent.

In trading on Thursday, industrial shares tumbled 1.93 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Collectors Universe, Inc. CLCT, down 32 percent, and Axcelis Technologies Inc ACLS down 8 percent.

Top Headline

Twitter Inc TWTR reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Twitter said it earned 19 cents per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $732 million, which came in ahead of the Street's expectations of 14 cents per share on revenue of $686 million. The company said its total monthly active users (MAU) base was unchanged from the prior quarter at 330 million and up 4 percent from a year ago. Average daily active users (DAU) rose 12 percent year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

Infinera Corp. INFN shares shot up 27 percent to $8.75 after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.

Shares of GrubHub Inc GRUB got a boost, shooting up 30 percent to $91.28 after reporting upbeat quarterly results.

Virtu Financial Inc VIRT shares were also up, gaining 27 percent to $25.55 following better-than-expected quarterly profit.

Equities Trading DOWN

Collectors Universe, Inc. CLCT shares dropped 33 percent to $17.82. Collectors Universe reported Q2 earnings from continuing operations of $0.01 per share on revenue of $14.1 million.

Shares of Quantum Corp QTM were down 38 percent to $3.46. Quantum reported that it is postponing Q3 results and its conference call, which were scheduled for this afternoon.

iRobot Corporation IRBT was down, falling around 30 percent to $61.80. iRobot reported better-than-expected revenue for its fourth quarter, but issued weak FY18 earnings guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.57 percent to $60.82 while gold traded up 0.46 percent to $1,320.70.

Silver traded up 0.84 percent Thursday to $16.375, while copper fell 0.05 percent to $3.086.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 1.60 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.21 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 2.26 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 2.62 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.98 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.49 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims slipped 9,000 to 221,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a reading of 236,000.

Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 119 billion cubic feet for the week ended February 2, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a drop of 109 billion cubic feet.

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

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George will speak in Wichita, Kansas at 9:00 p.m. ET.