On The Fly: Top stock stories for Thursday

Stock advanced, with the modest gains notched by the S&P enough to push the benchmark index into the green for the month ahead of the last day of March. Fourth quarter U.S. gross domestic product growth was bumped up to 2.1% in the third estimate from the Commerce Department with tomorrow set to be a busier day for economic data, both at home and abroad. Tomorrow investors can look forward to China's official manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs for March, the Eurozone CPI for March, data on U.S. personal income and spending in February and an updated consumer confidence reading from the University of Michigan. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Commerce Department's final estimate for fourth quarter GDP growth came in at a 2.1% annualized rate, up from the previously estimated 1.9% pace. Q4 personal consumption saw a bigger revision, being raised to 3.5% growth from 3%, and the core personal consumption expenditures index, which measures the prices paid by consumers, moved up to 1.3% growth from 1.2%. Initial jobless claims fell 3,000 to 258,000 last week from the 261,000 level report in the previous week. Natural gas inventories showed a 43 billion cubic feet draw, in-line with consensus. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of lululemon (LULU) plunged over 23% after the athletic wear maker warned that the company's first quarter has gotten off to a slow start, dragging down its outlook for the near-term and this fiscal year. The announcement sparked varied reactions from Wall Street analysts, with several downgrading the stock, while others remained buyers as they remain bullish on the company's longer-term story... ConocoPhillips (COP) gained 8.8% after the company agreed to sell its 50% interest in the Foster Creek Christina Lake and Canada Deep Basin gas assets to Cenovus (CVE) for $10.6B in cash and 208M Cenovus shares valued at $2.7B... Amazon (AMZN), looking to upend relationships between brands and brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT) and Costco (COST), has invited executives from General Mills (GIS), Mondelez (MDLZ) and other packaged goods makers to a gathering in May in an effort to persuade them to do more shipping directly to online shoppers, according to a report by Bloomberg. Recode also reported that Wal-Mart and Amazon are in an "all-out price war" that is putting pricing pressure on owners of well-known brands like Procter & Gamble (PG), Unilever (UN, UL), PepsiCo (PEP), Mondelez and Kimberly-Clark (KMB). MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), which advanced 4.6% after a report from Reuters indicated that Indonesia appears to be closer to allowing the company to resume exports of copper concentrate from its giant Grasberg mine. Also higher was Extreme Networks (EXTR), which gained more than 14% after it agreed to acquire Brocade's (BRCD) data center switching, routing, and analytics business from Broadcom (AVGO) following their merger deal. Additionally, PrivateBancorp (PVTB) rose 5% after the company announced that it has entered into an amended merger pact with CIBC (CM), under which its shareholders will receive an improved package of $24.20 in cash and 0.4176 of a CIBC common share. Among the noteworthy losers was Corbus Pharmaceuticals (CRBP), which slid 11.7% after TheStreet's Adam Feuerstein said the company's drug "failed to improve lung function compared to a placebo" and that the company "cherry-picked 'positive' results" instead of dealing with the clinical setback it had reported on this morning "honestly." Also lower was Worthington Industries (WOR), which fell over 9% after the company reported worse than expected third quarter results. Additionally, SecureWorks (SCWX) dropped about 6% after the stock was downgraded by at least three Street research firms in the wake of its earnings report. INDEXES: The Dow rose 69.17, or 0.33%, to 20,728.49, the Nasdaq gained 16.80, or 0.28%, to 5,914.34, and the S&P 500 advanced 6.93, or 0.29%, to 2,368.06.