Dow's Losing Streak Now Stands At 6 Days, S&P 500 And Nasdaq Slightly Positive - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday as the Dow Jones index traded lower by 206 points before recouping most of these losses.

However, the index closed the day in negative territory for the sixth straight day, despite encouraging U.S. labor data being reported.

Speaking to Bloomberg, St. Louis Fed Chief James Bullard said that the Fed's exit from its tapering program was always dependent on certain data sets.

Bullard, a non-voting member, added that the Fed cannot abide the drop in inflation expectations seen in TIPS and said “maybe this is just a juncture where we want to invoke this clause that it is data-dependent.” In other words, Bullard believes the Fed should delay the end of its quantitative easing program.

Looking forward to Friday Housing starts for September will be reported along wit Consumer Sentiment for October.

The Dow lost 0.15 percent, closing at 16,117.24.
The S&P 500 gained 0.01 percent, closing at 1,862.76.
The Nasdaq gained 0.05 percent, closing at 4,217.39.
Gold lost 0.37 percent, trading at $1,240.20 an ounce.
Oil gained 1.27 percent, trading at $82.82 a barrel.
Silver lost 0.37 percent, trading at $17.40 an ounce.

News of Note

Initial Jobless Claims declined 23,000 to 264,000 (versus the consensus of 290,000) while continued claims totaled 2.39 million.

September Industrial Production rose 1.0 percent (versus consensus of 0.4 percent) after declining 0.2 percent in August. Capacity utilization rose to 79.3 percent (versus consensus of 79.0) from 78.7 percent in August.

Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index fell to 36.2 from 36.8 last week.

October NAHB Housing Market Index fell to 54 (versus consensus of 59) from a prior 59.

October Philly Fed Business Outlook fell to +20.7 (versus consensus of +20.0) from a prior +22.5.

EIA Natural Gas Inventory rose 94 bcf (versus consensus of 91 bcf) after rising 105 bcf last week.

EIA Crude Inventories rose 8.9 million barrels after rising 5.0 million barrels last week.

EIA Gasoline Inventories fell 4.0 million barrels after rising 1.2 million barrels last week.

EIA Distillates Inventories fell 1.5 million barrels after rising 0.4 million barrels last week.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades of Note

Analysts at JPMorgan upgraded American Express AXP to Neutral from Underperform with a price target lowered to $90 from a previous $95. Shares lost 0.85 percent, closing at $80.24.

Analysts at Oppenheimer upgraded Baidu BIDU to Outperform from Market Perform with a $280 price target. Shares gained 2.67 percent, closing at $211.22.

Analysts at FBR Capital upgraded Bank of America BAC to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target raised to $20 from a previous $18. Shares gained 2.03 percent, closing at $16.08.

Analysts at Credit Suisse upgraded CSX CSX to Outperform from Neutral with a price target raised to $38 from a previous $33. Shares lost 0.02 percent, closing at $32.97.

Analysts at Argus Research upgraded Citigroup C to Hold from Sell. Shares gained 0.14 percent, closing at $49.75.

Analysts at ISI Group initiated coverage of Dresser-Rand DRC with a Sell rating and $83 price target.

Analysts at Canaccord Genuity maintained a Hold rating on eBay EBAY with a price target lowered to $52 from a previous $57. Analysts at Topeka Capital maintained a Hold rating on eBay with a price target lowered to $58 from a previous $59. Analysts at Barclays maintained an Equal-weight rating on eBay with a price target lowered to $62 from a previous $64. Shares hit new 52-week lows of $46.34 before closing the day at $47.88, down 4.70 percent.

Analysts at ISI Group initiated coverage of FMC FMC with a Buy rating and $67 price target. Shares gained 3.37 percent, closing at $56.14.

Analysts at JPMorgan upgraded FireEye FEYE to Overweight from Neutral with an unchanged $54 price target. Shares gained 8.06 percent, closing at $28.96.

Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus maintained a Buy rating on Las Vegas Sands LVS with a price target lowered to $80 from a previous $85. Shares gained 6.18 percent, closing at $64.05.

Analysts at Macquarie downgraded Lululemon Athletica LULU to Underperform from Neutral with a price target lowered to $34 from a previous $40. Shares gained 1.01 percent, closing at $40.00.

Analysts at Macquarie maintained an Outperform rating on Macy's M with a price target lowered to $63 from a previous $66. Shares gained 1.02 percent, closing at $56.57.

Analysts at Jefferies upgraded Netflix NFLX to Hold from Underperform with a price target lowered to $300 from a previous $350. Analysts at BMO Capital Markets maintained a Market Perform rating on Netflix with a price target lowered to $375 from a previous $400. Analysts at FBR Capital maintained a Market Perform rating on Netflix with a price target lowered to $425 from a previous $440. Analysts at Canaccord Genuity maintained a Buy rating on Netflix with a price target lowered to $450 from a previous $550. Analysts at Topeka Capital maintained a Buy rating on Netflix with a price target lowered to $511 from a previous $527. Shares lost 19.37 percent, closing at $361.70.

Analysts at Macquarie downgraded Nordstrom JWN to Neutral from Outperform with a price target lowered to $70 from a previous $77. Shares lost 0.26 percent, closing at $68.33.

Analysts at DA Davidson maintained a Neutral rating on Salesforce.com CRM with a price target lowered to $60 from a previous $62. Shares gained 1.47 percent, closing at $53.87.

Analysts at Guggenheim Securities downgraded Walt Disney DIS to Neutral from Buy with a price target lowered to $87 from a previous $96. Shares lost 0.41 percent, closing at $81.74.

Analysts at Argus Research upgraded Wells Fargo & Company WFC to Buy from Sell with a $54 price target. Shares gained 0.59 percent, closing at $48.13.

Equities-Specific News of Note

Apple AAPL said during its iPad launch event that Apple Pay will launch next Monday with over 500 banks supporting the platform. Also announced, the Apple Watch SDK will launch in early-2015 with developers getting their hands on the device next month. The iPad Air 2 is 18 percent thinner than the original iPad Air at 6.1 mm thick and will feature a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and runs on an A8X CPU. The iPad has an 8MP rear camera with slo-mo video and burst mode support. The price tag on the new device starts at $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi and higher storage devices will sell for as much as $699. The iPad Mini 3 received little coverage time and will sell for $399. Finally, a 27 inch retina iMac with a 5210x2880 resolution was unveiled with a $2,499 price target. Shares lost 1.31 percent, closing at $96.26.

Amazon.com AMZN said that it will hire 80,000 seasonal workers at its fulfillment networks. The company plans to convert thousands of these workers in to full time roles after the holiday season. Shares lost 1.03 percent, closing at $302.82.

CBS CBS will begin offering an online video subscription service called CBS All Access for $5.95 a month. Shares gained 0.85 percent, closing at $51.18.

Shares of GT Advanced Technologies GTATQ were de-listed from the Nasdaq exchange and will trade on the pink sheets under the ticker GTATQ. Shares closed the day unchanged at $0.3670.

Darden Restaurants DRI reappointed its former director (and ex-CEO of Wal-Mart U.S.) Bill Simon to its Board of Directors with the backing of Starboard Value. Shares of Darden Restaurants gained 0.25 percent, closing at $48.36.

Office Depot ODP plans to shed 1,100 jobs in Europe as part of a plan of saving $90 million by the end of 2016. Shares gained 4.91 percent, closing at $4.91.

BHP Billiton BHP said that it will pursue a secondary listing in the London stock exchange and will spin-off less-favored assets to the newly created company. Shares gained 0.09 percent, closing at $58.72.

The Gap's GPS Board of Directors approved a new $500 million share buyback program. Shares gained 1.53 percent, closing at $36.49.

Winners of Note

Synergy Resources SYRG said that its proven reserves for fiscal 2014 rose 133 percent from a year ago to 32.2 million barrels of energy, and the PV10 value of its reserves rose 126 percent to $534 million. The company plans to add 30 to 35 horizontal wells by the end of the second quarter 2015 to add to its three rigs currently running. Shares gained 9.39 percent, closing at $10.72.

According to Bloomberg TV, Lumos Networks LMOS hired bankers at Wells Fargo to explore strategic options. Shares gained 8.74 percent, closing at $16.30.

Decliners of Note

Chesapeake Energy CHK has agreed to sell some of its southern Marcellus Shale and eastern Utica Shale assets to Southwestern Energy SWN for $5.375 billion. Speaking to Barron's, analysts at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey said that Southwestern paid $9,625 an acre for the land, nearly double the selling price of previous deals in West Virginia. Shares of Chesapeake Energy gained 16.99 percent, closing at $20.79 while shares of Southwestern Energy hit new 52-week lows of $31.34 before closing the day at $31.97.

A Brazilian audit court determined that Petrobras PBR may have to pay $21.6 billion to complete its Comperj refinery, nearly 60 percent more than the company had budgeted. Shares lost 6.75 percent, closing at $14.50.

Earnings of Note

UnitedHealth Group UNH reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $1.63 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $1.53. Revenue of $32.76 billion beat the consensus estimate of $32.7 billion. Operating Earnings grew five percent from a year ago to $2 billion while cash flows from operations were $3.2 billion. The company saw its revenue from Employer & Individual segment fall 5.5 percent from a year ago to $10.61 billion; Medicare & Retirement revenue rose 3.9 percent to $11.477 billion; Community & State revenue rose 33.8 percent to $6.13 billion and International revenue rose 18.9 percent to $1.821 billion. Shares gained 3.93 percent, closing at $85.39.

Danaher DHR reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $0.95 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89. Revenue of $4.90 billion was in-line with the consensus estimate. Net earnings for the quarter rose to $680.6 million ($0.95 per share) from $597.0 million in the same quarter a year ago which includes a $0.04 per share after-tax gain on the divestiture of a product line and a $0.01 per share benefit from discrete tax items. The company expects its fourth quarter net earnings per share being $1.00 to $1.04. Shares gained 3.07 percent, closing at $74.19.

Mattel MAT reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $0.97 per share, missing the consensus estimate of $1.04. Revenue of $2.02 billion missed the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. Net income for the quarter fell to $331.8 million from $422.8 million in the same quarter a year ago as North American sales fell seven percent from a year ago and International sales also fell seven percent. Worldwide gross sales for Barbie fell 21 percent; Hot Wheels rose 5.0 percent, Fisher-Price fell 16 percent and American Girl fell 7.0 percent. Shares hit new 52-week lows of $28.67 before closing the day at $29.62, down 3.01 percent.

Baker Hughes BHI reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $1.02 per share, missing the consensus estimate of $1.14. Revenue of $6.25 billion missed the consensus estimate of $6.28 billion. Net income for the quarter rose to $375 million from $341 million a year ago as the quarterly results included record revenue, free cash flow and more than a 10 percent sequential increase in adjusted earnings. However, the company noted the political situation in Libya and Iraq as well as a fall in drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in margins coming in below expectations. As an example, the company's pretax profit margins in its Europe, Africa and Russia Caspian market fell to eight percent from 17 percent a year ago. Shares hit new 52-week lows of $47.51 before closing the day at $52.01, down 3.02 percent.

Philip Morris PM reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $1.39 per share, beating the consensus estimate. Revenue of $21.30 billion beat the consensus estimate of $7.70 billion. Net earnings for the quarter fell to $2.155 billion from $2.340 billion in the same quarter a year ago as cigarette volume fell 0.4 percent from a year ago to 222.3 million shipments. The company saw volume growth in Europe and Africa which was offset by weakness in Asian and Latin American markets. Shares gained 2.01 percent, closing at $85.26

Delta Air Lines DAL reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $1.20 per share, in-line with the consensus estimate. Revenue of $11.18 billion beat the consensus estimate of $11.16 billion. Net income for the quarter fell to $357 million from $1.37 billion in the same quarter a year ago as the company saw its fuel expense rise 29 percent to $2.95 billion. Passenger revenue rose six percent to $9.77 billion (revenue per available seat mile rose 2.4 percent), Cargo revenue rose seven percent to $244 million, ‘'Other” revenue rose 15 percent to $1.158 billion. Shares gained 2.90 percent, closing at $33.32.

Goldman Sachs GS reported its third quarter results this morning. The company earned $4.57 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $3.21. Revenue of $8.39 billion beat the consensus estimate of $7.85 billion. Net earnings for the quarter rose to $2.14 billion from $1.95 billion a year ago as the company saw increase revenues in all of its major units. Investment Banking revenue rose 26 percent from a year ago to $1.46 billion; Institutional Client Services revenue rose 32 percent to $3.77 billion; Investing and Lending Revenue rose 15 percent to $1.69 billion; Investment Management revenue rose 20 percent to $1.46 billion. Shares lost 2.63 percent, closing at $172.58.

Stryker SYK reported its third quarter results after market close. The company earned $1.15 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14. Revenue of $2.39 billion beat the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. Shares were trading higher by 0.32 percent at $79.46 following the earnings report.

Google GOOG reported its third quarter results after market close. The company earned $6.35 per share, missing the consensus estimate of $6.37. Revenue of $13.20 billion missed the consensus estimate of $13.23 billion. Shares were trading lower by 2.82 percent $509.70 following the earnings report.

Quote of the Day

"Inflation expectations are declining in the U.S. That's an important consideration for a central bank. And for that reason I think that a logical policy response at this juncture may be to delay the end of the QE.” - St. Louis Fed Chief James Bullard speaking to Bloomberg.

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