Market Wrap For November 7, 2013: Markets Take A Breather As Twitter Takes Centre Stage

After hitting record levels during Wednesday's trading session, US equities took a bit of a breather today as all major indexes finished the trading session in the red. The Dow Jones declined 0.95 percent to 15,597. The S&P 500 declined 1.31 percent to 1,747. The Nasdaq declined 1.90 percent to 3,857. Gold lost $9.30 an ounce or 0.71 percent to close at $1,308.50 at the NYMEX. Silver lost $0.011 an ounce or 0.51 percent to close at $21.66 at the NYMEX. Light Crude oil declined $0.60 a barrel or 0.63 percent to close at $94.20. News Of Note The U.S GDP expanded quarter over quarter by 2.8 percent, higher than the expected 2.00 percent with the previous reading coming in at 2.5 percent. Many investors and traders interpreted the faster than expected growth in the economy a sign that the Federal Reserve could soon slow its stimulus program, which could explain today's declines. Initial jobless claims were also released, and it was a positive. Claims fell 336,000 in the week ended November 2, in line with expectations of 335,000 and down from 345,000 the week before. The European Central Bank surprised markets by cutting interest rates to a record low of 0.25 percent from 0.5 percent. The ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank is prepared to take further measures, including another rate cut. Draghi further added that interest rates are expected to remain at current or lower level “for an extended period of time.” Opec updated its oil demand forecasts based partly on an expectation of 380 million new cars in China by 2035. The organization estimated that the world needs to invest nearly $8 trillion on new infrastructures such as production plants, refineries and pipelines to meat future demands. Equities Specific News Of Note Investors were playing the waiting game for shares of Twitter TWTR to begin trading. Shares opened at $45.10 after initial speculation in previous days that the opening price would be in the $23 to $25 range. Shares were trading strong most of the day, having hit a high of $50.09 minutes after its debut and settled the day at $44.94 up 72.84 percent. An activist shareholder, Eminence Capital has taken a 9.8 percent stake in Men's Wearhouse. MW The fund will attempt to revive the company's talks with Jos. A. Bank JOSB and to solicit other bids to create more value for shareholders. Shares of Men's Wearhouse closed the day at $45.55 up 7.09 percent. Christmas has come early for J.C. Penney. JCP The struggling retailer finally posted good news as the company reported that same-store-sales increased by 0.9 percent in October. The company delivered on a previous promise to turn its same-store sales positive coming out of the fiscal third quarter. Shares closed the day at $8.13, up 5.58 percent. Thursday's trading session was not kind to Elon Musk. Musk's Tesla TSLA continued its losing streak having shed 7.47 percent to close the day at $139.87. Shares have seen selling pressure today following another report of a Model S fire. Elon Musk's other child, SolarCity SCTY has seen its shares plummet 16.7 percent. The company whose CEO is Elon Musk's cousin (and Musk holds a board of directors seat) reported a third quarter loss of 43 cents a share and offered a weak fourth quarter guidance after the markets closed on Wednesday. Pre-market, JP Morgan reiterated its Overweight rating and $68 price target. Bank Of America/ Merill Lynch also reiterated its buy target with a $70 price target. Whole Foods WFM offered investors a sour earnings report after the bell Wednesday. The company reported weaker then expected growth, and shareholders didn't have to line up at the register to hit the “sell” button. Shares closed the day down 11.18 percent. Whole Foods was the recipient of a price downgrade as Jefferies lowered its target to $68. Shares are however still buy rated. New York City is expected to be host to three to seven casinos within the next few years. Ceasars CSZ is said to express interest in building casinos in the state, and for good reason. Ceasars is heavily exposed to Atlantic City with its four properties and recently lost $761 million in the third quarter mostly due to write-downs of Atlantic City assets. Shares of Ceasars closed lower by 3.51 percent to end the day at $17.02. Today's Gainers Of Note Geron Corporation GERN gained 44.72 percent to close the day at $5.21 after it was disclosed that its experimental bone marrow disorder drug has helped patients in a study. DexCom, Inc DXCM gained 21.99 percent to close at $33.26 after the company reported a narrower loss of $6.0 million compared to $17.3 million loss in the same quarter last year. Revenue surged 85.7 percent to $42.9 million. Today's Decliners of Note Fairway Group Holdings Corp FWM lost 21.64 percent to close at $19.95 after the company reported its second quarter results. The company reported a loss of $0.30 a share compared to an estimate of ($0.07). Revenue also missed consensus coming in at $183.2 million versus an expected $187.27 million. Earnings Of Note After hours Groupon GRPN released its third quarter results that were mixed. EPS of $0.02 came in higher than the $0.01 consensus. While the company reported an increase in revenue of 5 percent year over year to $595.1 million, this number was short of expectations. The company also expects its fourth quarter revenue to come in at $690 million to $740 million, below $723.7 million consensus. Shares were trading lower by 10 percent in the after hours session. Priceline PCLN reported third quarter EPS of $17.30, beating consensus by $1.08. Revenue came in $50 million more than expected at $2.27 billion. Shares were seen trading slightly higher by 0.5 percent.