Mid-Afternoon Market Update: NASDAQ Down 2.3%; Textron Shares Fall After Q3 Results

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.73 percent to 25,262.25 while the NASDAQ declined 2.3 percent to 7,467. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.8 percent to 2,758.68.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the real estate shares slipped by just 0.08 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Farmland Partners Inc FPI up 4 percent, and IRSA Propiedades Comerciales SA IRCP up 5 percent.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell 2.3 percent.

Top Headline

Philip Morris International Inc. ABT reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter.

Philip Morris posted quarterly earnings of $1.44 per share on revenue of $7.5 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.28 per share on sales of $7.17 billion. Philip Morris reaffirmed its FY18 earnings guidance of $4.97 to $5.02 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Endocyte, Inc. ECYT shares shot up 50 percent to $23.385 after the company agreed to be acquired by Novartis AG NVS for $24 per share.

Shares of Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. PTI got a boost, shooting up 307 percent to $7.69 on the announcement of positive preliminary results from three doublet cohorts of Phase 1 placebo-controlled studies in subjects with cystic fibrosi. PTI-801 and PTI-808 achieved statistical significance on all endpoints.

Osmotica Pharmaceuticals plc OSMT shares were also up, gaining 17 percent to $8.21. Osmotica Pharamceuticals priced its IPO at $7 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Insteel Industries, Inc. IIIN shares dropped 14 percent to $29.10 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results.

Shares of General Moly, Inc. GMO were down 39 percent to $0.2151 after the company priced a 9.2 million unit share and warrant offering at $0.25 per unit.

Textron Inc. TXT was down, falling around 11 percent to $57.75 after the company reported downbeat earnings for its third quarter and narrowed its FY18 adjusted earnings guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.97 percent to $69.07 while gold traded up 0.15 percent to $1,229.20.

Silver traded down 0.46 percent Thursday to $14.595, while copper fell 1.35 to $2.7405.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.51 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.2 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.89 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.07 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.55 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.39 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims slipped 5,000 to 210,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a reading of 214,000.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index dropped to 22.2 for October, versus a reading of 22.9 in September. Economists projected a reading of 19.7.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.5 percent for September.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 81 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 12, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a gain of 82 billion cubic feet.

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