On The Fly: Top stock stories for Thursday

Stocks opened in negative territory and remained there throughout the day. The early weakness was related to the technology sector amid concerns of slowing Apple (AAPL) iPhone demand following cautious commentary about mobile phone demand out of semiconductor foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM). The selling picked up momentum as 10-year bond yields edged higher, providing an alternative place for investors to put their money. Oil prices also proved to be a headwind for stocks, as the price of oil moved above $69 a barrel before coming back in a bit later in the day. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims dipped 1,000 to 232,000 in the week ended April 14. The Philly Fed manufacturing index edged up 0.9 points to 23.2 in April. The leading economic indicators index rose 0.3% in March, as expected. COMPANY NEWS: Apple shares slipped 2.8% after key chip supplier Taiwan Semiconductor's narrow earnings miss was accompanied by weak guidance... Amazon (AMZN) shares were in focus after CEO Jeff Bezos told investors that the company has exceeded 100M paid Prime members globally and has shipped more than 5B items with Prime worldwide... Among some of the biggest companies reporting earnings last night and this morning, American Express (AXP), Alcoa (AA) and Kinder Morgan (KMI) advanced following their reports, while Philip Morris (PM) and Novartis (NVS) declined. Procter & Gamble (PG) fell 4% after the consumer goods giant reported in-line Q3 core EPS and also announced it has agreed to acquire the Consumer Health business of Merck KGaA (MKGAY) for a price of approximately EUR3.4B... In other M&A news, Shire (SHPG) confirmed that it has received three conditional proposals from Takeda (TKPYY) regarding a possible offer for the company, all of which it rejected, including the most recent offer valued at GBP46.50 per Shire share. Allergan (AGN) confirmed that was also in the early stages of considering a possible offer for Shire, though later said that it does not intend to make an offer for Shire... Qualcomm (QCOM) reported that, at the request of the Ministry of Commerce in China, the company and NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) have withdrawn and refiled the notice of acquisition regarding the companies' planned combination. In conjunction with the refiling, NXP and Qualcomm have agreed, among other things, to extend the end date of their purchase agreement from April 25 to July 25, 2018. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Adamas Pharmaceuticals (ADMS), which rose 7% after it announced "positive" data from its Phase 3 open-label study of GOCOVRI extended release capsules. Also higher was BNY Mellon (BK), which gained nearly 6% after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was Ichor Holdings (ICHR), which dropped almost 10% after it agreed to acquire IAN Engineering. Also lower was Sleep Number (SNBR), which fell 14% after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: The Dow fell 83.18, or 0.34%, to 24,664.89, the Nasdaq lost 57.18, or 0.78%, to 7,238.06, and the S&P 500 declined 15.51, or 0.57%, to 2,693.13.