Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; PepsiCo Posts In-Line Q4 Profit

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.28 percent to 15,711.20 while the NASDAQ declined 0.95 percent to 4,242.71. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.17 percent to 1,830.11. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Thursday, utilities shares slipped by just 0.7 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cleco Corporation CNL, up 0.3 percent, and Avista Corp AVA up 0.4 percent. In trading on Thursday, financial shares tumbled by 2.5 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC OZM, down 13 percent, and Apollo Investment Corp. AINV, down 9 percent. Top Headline PepsiCo, Inc. PEP reported in-line earnings for the fourth quarter. However, the company's revenue exceeded analysts' estimates. The company also raised its annualized dividend to $3.01 per share. PepsiCo posted adjusted earnings of $1.06 per share, on revenue of $18.59 billion. Analysts were estimating earnings of $1.06 per share on revenue of $18.51 billion. Equities Trading UP Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc LTRPA shares shot up 17 percent to $20.36. Tripadvisor reported stronger-than-expected Q4 results. Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO got a boost, shooting up 9 percent to $24.58 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter fiscal 2016. Management announced it will add $15 billion to its share repurchase program, and boosted the stock's dividend yield to 4.6 percent, or $0.26 per share -- payable on April 27 to shareholders of record as of April 6. 3D Systems Corporation DDD shares were also up, gaining 10 percent to $8.90 after the company issued a strong revenue forecast for the fourth quarter. Equities Trading DOWN Blue Nile Inc NILE shares dropped 24 percent to $23.65. Blue Nile reported downbeat Q4 sales and issued a weak forecast for the current quarter. Shares of Incyte Corporation INCY were down 23 percent to $56.01. Incyte reported Q4 earnings of $0.30 per share on sales of $182 million. The company also announced plans to discontinue the Phase 3 study (JANUS 1) of ruxolitinib plus capecitabine. Flowers Foods, Inc. FLO was down, falling around 23 percent to $16.10 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results and issued a weak FY16 outlook. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 3.46 percent to $26.50, while gold traded up 3.31 percent to $1,234.10. Silver traded up 2.38 percent Thursday to $15.65, while copper fell 0.96 percent to $2.01. Eurozone European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 3.05 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 3.63 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index tumbled 4.88 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX dipped 2.09 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 3.29 percent, while U.K. shares fell 1.86 percent. Economics Initial jobless claims slipped 16,000 to 269,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting claims to reach 281,000 in the week.