Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Rising as Oil Cools Off

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.23 percent to 15,506.39 while the NASDAQ gained 0.49 percent to 3,672.08. The S&P also rose, surging 0.46 percent to 1,698.69.

Top Headline
Yesterday, Groupon GRPN reported upbeat second-quarter sales and appointed Eric Lefkofsky as its CEO. Groupon posted a quarterly loss of $7.6 million, or $0.01 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $28.4 million, or $0.04 per share. Excluding one-time items, it earned $0.02 per share. Its revenue surged to $608.7 million from $568.3 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.02 per share on revenue of $606.2 million.

Equities Trading UP
Groupon GRPN shot up 22.12 percent to $10.64 after the company reported upbeat second-quarter sales and appointed Eric Lefkofsky as its CEO. UBS upgraded the stock from Sell to Neutral. Shares of Intrexon XON were also up, gaining a staggering 50.78 percent to $24.12 after the company posted a very successful IPO Thursday morning. Orbitz Worldwide OWW was also up, gaining 36.51 percent to $12.58 after the company reported upbeat Q2 revenue and lifted its FY13 revenue outlook.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Fusion-io FIO were down 24.19 percent to $11.30 after the company reported a Q4 loss and issued a weak Q1 revenue forecast. Analysts at Benchmark downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold. Halcon Resources HK shares tumbled 11.07 percent to $5.22 after the company priced an underwritten public offering of 38,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $5.10 per share. Silicon Graphics International SGI was down as well, falling 24.27 percent to $15.07 following a miss on its fourth-quarter report this morning.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.93 percent to $103.40, while gold traded up 2.15 percent to $1,312.30. Silver traded up 3.57 percent Thursday to $20.29, while copper rose 3.15 percent to $3.27.

Eurozone
European shares were higher today. The European Central Bank issued its monthly report and cut its growth forecast for the eurozone to -0.6 percent from -0.4 percent for 2013 and 1.0 percent growth to 0.9 percent growth in 2014. German exports rose by 0.6 percent in June. The Spanish Ibex Index gained 1.01 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index surged 1.50 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.51 percent and the French CAC 40 rose 0.64 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.04 percent.

Economics
US jobless claims increased by 5,000 to 333,000 in the week ended August 3. However, economists were estimating claims to rise to 339,000 in the week. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to -23.50 in the week ended August 4, versus a prior reading of -27.00. US natural gas supplies rose by 96 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 2, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were projecting a rise between 74 billion cubic feet and 78 billion cubic feet. Data on money supply will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.