Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Verizon Sales Beat Estimates

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.42 percent to 23,059.85 while the NASDAQ declined 0.93 percent to 6,562.66. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.48 percent to 2,549.03.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday morning, the telecommunications services shares surged 0.36 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included B Communications Ltd BCOM, up 2 percent, and Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, up 3 percent.

In trading on Thursday, technology shares fell 0.94 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Ultra Clean Holdings Inc UCTT, down 8 percent, and Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) BITA down 6 percent.

Top Headline

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ posted better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Verizon posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.98 per share on revenue of $31.71 billion. However, analysts expected earnings of $0.98 per share on revenue of $31.45 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc CRBP shares shot up 19 percent to $8.30 after the company disclosed positive topline results from Phase 2 study of safety and efficacy of anabasum in dermatomyositis.

Shares of Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Inc IMMY got a boost, shooting up 73 percent to $2.52 after the company announced Thursday the release of a 99-cent alternative to Allergan PLC AGN's Restasis to address the 30 million Americans suffering from Dry Eye Disease.

Alcobra Ltd ADHD shares were also up, gaining 48 percent to $1.88 as the company reported a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation to discover and develop RNA medicines.

Equities Trading DOWN

Ocean Power Technologies Inc OPTT shares dropped 35 percent to $1.30. Ocean Power Technologies priced its 5,739,437 share common stock offering at $1.42 per share.

Shares of Earthstone Energy Inc ESTE were down 14 percent to $9.03. Earthstone Energy priced an underwritten public offering of 4,500,000 shares of its Class A common stock at $9.25 per share.

Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc IMNP was down, falling around 38 percent to $0.940. Immune Pharmaceuticals priced an underwritten public offering of convertible preferred stock and warrants for gross proceeds of $18,000,000.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.58 percent to $51.22 while gold traded up 0.59 percent to $1,290.60.

Silver traded up 0.52 percent Thursday to $17.085, while copper fell 0.44 percent to $3.164.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.92 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.89 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 1.32 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.85 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.67 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.56 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims declined 22,000 to 222,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 240,000 last week.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose 4.1 points to 27.9 in October. Economists projected a reading of 20.

The index of leading economic indicators declined 0.2 percent for September.

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

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