Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Mixed As Twitter Turns Red

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.01 percent to 16,482.38 while the NASDAQ declined 0.30 percent to 4,154.96. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03 percent to 1,841.37.

Top Headline
Yesterday, Textron (NYSE: TXT) agreed to buy acquire Beechcraft for around $1.4 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2014. In 2013, Beechcraft has around $1.8 billion in expected revenue.

Equities Trading UP
Shares of Sprint (NYSE: S) were up on Friday's session, gaining 8.28 percent to $10.78 following some strong options activity to the bullish side.

Molycorp (NYSE: MCP) was up as well, gaining 13.93 percent to $5.48 as traders dove into more volatile names on Friday's session.

Organovo Holdings (NYSE: ONVO) was also up, gaining 2.54 percent to $9.28. The rise in the shares may be attributed to Thursday's Computerworld Article on 3D printed liver coming in 2014.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) were down 11.59 percent to $64.92 after Macquarie downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underperform. Textura (NYSE: TXTR) tumbled 5.24 percent to $29.66. Textura shares tumbled 17.06 percent yesterday after Citron Research issued a scathing report on the company midway through the morning Thursday.

American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL) was also down, falling 4.40 percent to $24.98 as traders looked exit the airline following its recent rally.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.67 percent to $100.22, while gold traded up 0.15 percent to $1,214.90. Silver traded up 1.54 percent Friday to $20.03, while copper fell 0.47 percent to $3.38.

Eurozone
European shares were higher today. The Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.82 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.39 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 1.06 percent and the French CAC 40 jumped 1.40 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.85 percent.

Economics

US crude oil inventories fell by 4.7 million barrels for the week ending December 20, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were projecting a drop of 2.3 million barrels. Gasoline inventories dropped by 600,000 barrels, versus analysts' expectations for a 1.2 million barrels gain.

Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Eurozone Futures Commodities Forex Global Econ #s Economics Intraday Update Markets Movers Tech

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