Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Weatherford Rises Following Q4 Results; Ralph Lauren Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.05 percent to 19,881.23 while the NASDAQ declined 0.18 percent to 5,632.51. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.02 percent to 2,279.10.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares rose by 0.98 percent in trading on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Mead Johnson Nutrition CO MJN, and Ingles Markets, Incorporated IMKTA.

In trading on Thursday, telecommunications services shares slipped by 0.71 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Sprint Corp S, down 4 percent, and Black Box Corporation BBOX, down 8 percent.

Top Headline

Facebook Inc FB reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Wednesday.

Facebook reported Q4 EPS of $1.41, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.31. Its revenue came in at $8.629 billion, beating expectations of $8.51 billion. Facebook’s mobile daily active users climbed 23 percent to 1.15 billion.


Equities Trading UP

Mead Johnson Nutrition CO MJN shares shot up 22 percent to $84.87. Reckitt Benckiser Group confirmed to Reuters it's in talks to acquire Mead Johnson Nutrition for $90 per share in cash or approximately $16.7 billion.

Shares of Weatherford International Plc WFT got a boost, shooting up 14 percent to $5.91 after the company reported Q4 results. Weatherford posted a narrower-than-expected Q4 loss.

Benitec Biopharma Ltd (ADR) BNTC shares were also up, gaining 114 percent to $3.42 as the company disclosed that they have made important progress on the development of therapeutics for the treatment of ocular diseases.


Equities Trading DOWN

Ralph Lauren Corp RL shares dropped 12 percent to $77.24 after the company reported the departure of its CEO. Ralph Lauren reported Q3 adjusted earnings of $1.86 per share on revenue of $1.7 billion.

Shares of Shutterfly, Inc. SFLY were down around 16 percent to $43.58 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

CSG Systems International, Inc. CSGS was down, falling around 19 percent to $39.17. CSG Systems reported a Q4 profit of $12.6 million on revenue of $195.2 million.


Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.32 percent to $53.71 while gold traded up 0.80 percent to $1,218.00.

Silver traded up 0.06 percent Thursday to $17.46, while copper fell 0.94 percent to $2.69.

Eurozone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.34 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.81 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.79 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.27 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.01 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.47 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims dropped 14,000 to 246,000 in the latest week. Economists were expecting initial claims to reach 250,000 in the week.

Non-farm productivity rose at an annual pace of 1.3 percent for the fourth quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 1 percent growth.

Supplies of natural gas declined 87 billion cubic feet for the week ended January 27, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a drop of 88 billion cubic feet.

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

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Posted In: EarningsNewsEurozoneCommoditiesM&AGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMoversMid-Afternoon Market Update
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