Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Twitter Beats Q3 Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.86 percent to 24,795.54 while the NASDAQ climbed 2.06 percent to 7,254.51. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.22 percent to 2,688.39.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the communication services shares gained 2.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Twitter Inc TWTR up 19 percent, and Glu Mobile Inc. GLUU up 12 percent.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares tumbled 1.6 percent.

Top Headline

Twitter Inc TWTR reported upbeat results for its third quarter.

Twitter said it earned $0.21 per share in the quarter on revenue of $758 million, which was better than the $0.14 per share and $702.57 million analysts were expecting. Twitter disclosed that average daily active users rose 9 percent year-over-year in the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Sleep Number Corporation SNBR shares shot up 14 percent to $34.785 after the company reported strong Q3 results.

Shares of Twitter, Inc. TWTR got a boost, shooting up 21 percent to $33.27 after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter.

ASGN Incorporated ASGN shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $65.495 after reporting strong results for its third quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

CURO Group Holdings Corp. CURO shares dropped 24 percent to $17.33 after the company reported weak Q3 earnings and lowered its FY18 EPS guidance.

Shares of Align Technology, Inc. ALGN were down 26 percent to $214.19. Align Technology posted upbeat Q3 results, but issued weak forecast for the current quarter.

WPP plc WPP was down, falling around 18 percent to $57.4059 after the company reported Q3 results and lowered its full-year profit forecast.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.66 percent to $67.26 while gold traded up 0.32 percent to $1,235.00.

Silver traded up 0.44 percent Thursday to $14.74, while copper rose 0.07 to $2.7595.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.03 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.94 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.62 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.27 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.29 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.09 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders rose 0.8 percent for September, versus economists’ expectations for a 1.3 percent decline.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods increased to $76.0 billion in September. However, economists were expecting a $76.2 billion deficit. Exports gained 1.8 percent, while imports increased 1.5 percent for September.

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 5,000 to 215,000 in the latest week. However, economists expected a 214,000 reading.

U.S. pending home sales rose 0.5 percent to 104.6 for September, versus a reading of 104.1 in August.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for October will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Board of Governors Vice Chairman Richard Clarida is set to speak in Washington, D.C. at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester will speak in New York, NY at 7:00 p.m. ET.

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