Falling crude oil prices along with a larger than expected gain in first time applications for unemployment benefits sent the markets down to a sharply lower close on the final trading day of the year with the Dow plunging 160 points to 17,823. Nasdaq tumbled 41 points to 4,736. Overall, the Dow rose 7.5% and Nasdaq climbed 13.4% in 2014.
On the upside
Roth Capital lifted its price target on Cytokinetics (Nasdaq: CYTK) from $13 to $18.
Sigma Designs (Nasdaq: SIGM) entered a lease agreement for an office building in Fremont, California with no rent payments for the first 9 months of the lease.
Expectations that iron ore prices will improve lifted shares of Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF).
On the downside
LiveDeal (Nasdaq: LIVE) extended its losses.
RF Micro Devices (Nasdaq: RFMD) and TriQuint Semiconductor (Nasdaq: TQNT) will delist from Nasdaq ahead of the close of their previously announced merger. The new combined company to be called Qorvo will begin trading on Nasdaq on January 2, 2015 under the ticker symbol QRVO.
A lawsuit was filed against Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) for false advertising related to the storage capacity of its devices.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 plummeted 21 points to 2058. Bitcoin rose $6 at $317.
