Thursday Closing Bell: Markets Drop in Final Hour of Trading

October 31, 2013: U.S. markets opened lower Thursday morning as Eurozone unemployment rose more than expected and new jobless claims in the U.S. came in slightly better than expected. It appears that investors took the low morning prices to be a buying opportunity before selling stocks off sharply in the last hour of trading to close lower for the day.

European markets closed mostly higher today, while Asian markets closed lower and Latin American markets closed mixed.

Friday’s calendar includes automakers’ reports on October sales, speeches by St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, and Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, and the following scheduled data releases and events (all times Eastern):

• 8:58 a.m. – PMI manufacturing index
• 10:00 a.m. – ISM manufacturing index

Here are the closing bell levels for Thursday:

• S&P500 1756.55 (-6.76; -0.38%)
• DJIA 15545.75 (-73.01; -0.47%)
• NASDAQ 3919.71 (-10.91; -0.28%)
• 10YR TNOTE 2.554% (-0.09375)
• Gold $1,323.70 (-25.60; -1.9%) and settled down 0.3% for the month of October
• WTI Crude oil $96.38 (-0.39; -0.4%) and settled down 5.8% for the month
• Euro/Dollar: 1.3581 (-0.0155; -1.13%)

Big Earnings Movers: Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) is up 0.3% at $81.06 on good earnings. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is up 2.6% at $50.26 on another good report. Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is up 1% at $89.70. Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) is down 21.6% at $17.56 after a very poor showing.

Stocks on the Move: ARIAD Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA) is down 44.4% at $2.20 after suspending sales of a cancer drug. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is up 16.4% at $3.84 as investors remain patient with the company’s turnaround plan. 58.com Inc. (NYSE: WUBA) is up 43.1% at $24.32 after today’s IPO. Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) is down 22.6% at $1.92 after court rules a patent invalid.

In all, 223 NYSE stocks put up new 52-week highs today, while only 13 stocks posted new lows.