Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Vonage Rises on Acquisition Amid Huge Market Rally

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.95 percent to 15,093.07 while the NASDAQ surged 2.23 percent to 3,759.22. The S&P also rose, gaining 2.02 percent to 1,689.14.

Top Headline

Yesterday, Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) lowered its forecast for the third quarter. The company projects adjusted earnings of $0.68 to $0.69 per share on revenue of $710 million to $712 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.73 per share on revenue of $737 million.

Equities Trading UP
Vonage Holdings (NYSE: VG) was up early on in Thursday's session, gaining 15.74 percent to $3.53 after news broke that the company would acquire Vocalocity for $130 million.

Shares of Questcor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: QCOR) got a boost, shooting up 9.41 percent to $59.74 after the company lifted its quarterly dividend by 20%.

iGATE (NASDAQ: IGTE) was also up, gaining 10.51 percent to $30.49 after the company reported upbeat Q3 results.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) were down 11.69 percent to $58.87 after the company lowered its forecast for the third quarter.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARIA) shares tumbled 6.52 percent to $5.45 Barclays downgraded the stock from Overweight to Underweight and lowered the target price from $25 to $4. Bank of America also downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral. 

Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) was also down, falling 6.71 percent to $55.57 after a report came out that management turnover at the company is increasing. 

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.26 percent to $102.89, while gold traded down1.06 percent to $1,293.80. Silver traded down 0.01 percent Thursday to $21.87, while copper rose 0.53 percent to $3.24.

Eurozone
European shares were higher today. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.24 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index surged 1.36 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 1.96 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 2.21 percent while U.K. shares gained 1.37 percent.

Economics
US jobless claims rose 66,000 to 374,000 for the week ended October 5. However, economists were projecting claims to increase to 312,000, versus an unrevised 308,000 in the earlier week.

The Bloomberg Consumer Confidence index declined to -29.70 for the week ended for October 6, versus a prior reading of -29.40. Natural gas supplies climbed 90 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 4, the US Energy Information Administration reported.

However, analysts were expecting a gain of 93 billion cubic feet to 97 billion cubic feet.

The Treasury is set to auction 30-year bonds. Data on money supply will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Posted-In: Mid-Afternoon Market UpdateEarnings News Guidance Eurozone Commodities Forex Global Econ #s Economics Hot Intraday Update Markets Movers Tech

(c) 2013 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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