Major U.S. Averages Close in the Red
The market could not make up its mind Thursday, as the Dow crossed the unchanged line more than 150 times before finally settling just slightly lower. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also followed suit and closed the day in the red. But, All the major averages are still positive for the week.
While the markets seemed undecided, two defense contractors with close ties to the fight against ISIS hit new record highs. Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) hit its third lifetime high this week while Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) hit its second all-time high since Friday. Many defense names are seeing sharp moves to the upside in reaction to Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris.
The focus is not just on defense stocks following Friday's attacks, but eyes have turned to a Silicon Valley startup that protects websites against attempts to bring them down with denial of service attacks. Hacking group Anonymous is lashing out against a company called CloudFlare for allegedly shielding pro-ISIS sites from the hacking group's attacks. I sat down exclusively with CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince and asked him whether these allegations were true.
Twitter's (NYSE:TWTR) Jack Dorsey was back in the news Thursday and not because of the social media site, but rather for his other project; mobile payments company Square (NYSE:SQ). Square set an IPO price of $9 per share, well below its expected range of $11-$13. But, shares popped Thursday, by as much as 60%! Square ended its first day higher by more than 45%
Gap (NYSE:GPS) released earnings after the bell. The big retailer came in line with EPS estimates, while missing on revenue as same-store sales fell 2% in the third quarter. The company has also cut its full-year profit forecast due to the strong dollar. Shares of Gap were down 4% after hours.