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

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.14 percent to 18,224.57 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.23 percent to 5,262.41. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.11 percent to 2,141.71.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, healthcare shares gained by 0.72 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Psychemedics Corp. PMD, and Cardiovascular Systems Inc CSII.

In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares fell by 0.52 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Carpenter Technology Corporation CRS, down 15 percent, and Cliffs Natural Resources Inc CLF, down 12 percent.

Top Headline

Twitter Inc TWTR reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Twitter earned $0.13 per share on revenue of $616 million. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.09 per share on revenue of $605.8 million.

Total monthly active users (MAU) rose from 313 million in the second quarter to 317 million in the third quarter. Average U.S. MAUs rose from 66 million in the prior quarter to 67 million while average international MAUs rose from 247 million in the prior quarter to 250 million.

The company announced a restructuring and reduction in its workforce which will affect approximately 9 percent of its total global headcount.

Equities Trading UP

ProQR Therapeutics NV PRQR shares shot up 20 percent to $7.50 as the company announced its QR-010 Cystic Fibrosis treatment met its primary endpoint during its Phase 1b study.

Shares of PCM Inc PCMI got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $22.26 after the company posted upbeat Q3 results and issued a strong FY16 forecast.

Psychemedics Corp. PMD shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $23.95 following Q3 results. Psychemedics reported Q3 earnings of $0.49 per share on revenue of $11.8 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Community Health Systems CYH shares dropped 36 percent to $6.37. Community Health Systems projects Q3 net operating revenue of $4.380 billion and loss from continuing operations before income taxes of around $(83) million. Baird downgrades Community Health from Neutral to Underperform.

Shares of Rewalk Robotics Ltd RWLK were down 25 percent to $3.32. ReWalk Robotics announced an offering of ordinary shares and warrants and reported preliminary Q3 sales of 1.4 million.

AMEC Foster Wheeler plc AMFW was down, falling around 21 percent to $5.58. Societe Generale downgraded AMEC Foster Wheeler from Buy to Hold.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.55 percent to $49.45 while gold traded up 0.37 percent to $1,271.30.

Silver traded up 0.42 percent Thursday to $17.70, while copper rose 0.37 percent to $2.15.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.06 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.13 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.39 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.08 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 0.08 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.36 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims declined 3,000 to 258,000 last week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 255,000 in the week.

U.S. durable-goods orders declined 0.10 percent for September, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.10 percent growth

The pending home sales index gained 1.5 percent to 110.0 for September. Economists were projecting a growth of 1.2 percent for the month.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks 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 will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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