Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 2%; Solaredge Technologies Shares Surge On Strong Results

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.02 percent to 17,871.18 while the NASDAQ slipped 0.30 percent to 5,127.28. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.09 percent to 2,100.35. Leading and Lagging Sectors In trading on Thursday, financial shares jumped by 0.27 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Investment Technology Group ITG, up 19 percent, and Triple-S Management Corp. GTS, up 19 percent. Basic materials shares declined around 1.55 percent in Thursday's trading. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Royal Gold, Inc USA) RGLD, down 14 percent, and CF Industries Holdings, Inc. CF, off 10 percent. Top Headline Facebook Inc FB reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter on Wednesday. The Menlo Park, California-based company reported quarterly net income of $896 million, or $0.31 per share, compared to $806 million, or $0.30 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Its adjusted earnings came in at $0.57 per share. Its revenue climbed to $4.50 billion from $3.20 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.52 per share on revenue of $4.37 billion. Equities Trading UP HomeAway, Inc. AWAY shares shot up 25 percent to $40.01 after Expedia Inc EXPE announced its plans to acquire HomeAway for around $3.9 billion in cash and stock. Shares of ePlus Inc. PLUS got a boost, shooting up 22 percent to $101.77 on better-than-expected Q2 results. Solaredge Technologies Inc SEDG shares were also up, gaining 30 percent to $22.41 after the company reported upbeat quarterly results. Equities Trading DOWN Castlight Health Inc CSLT shares tumbled 28 percent to $3.79. Castlight Health reported a Q3 loss of $0.17 per share on revenue of $19.5 million. Shares of Intersect ENT Inc XENT were down 23 percent to $16.68 after the company reported a wider-than-expected Q3 loss. AVG Technologies NV AVG was down, falling 16 percent to $20.13 after the company reported downbeat Q3 results. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 2.09 percent to $45.35, while gold traded down 0.22 percent to $1,103.80. Silver traded down 0.58 percent Thursday to $14.97, while copper fell 3.04 percent to $2.25. Eurozone European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 0.40 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.40 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.40 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.39 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.64 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.75 percent. Economics US jobless claims rose 16,000 to 276,000 in the week ended October 31, 2015. However, economists were projecting claims to reach 262,000 in the week. U.S. nonfarm productivity increased at an annual pace of 1.6 percent in the third quarter, versus economists' expectations for a 0.2 percent decline. Supplies of natural gas gained 52 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 30, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Analysts were expecting a rise between 55 billion cubic feet and 59 billion cubic feet.