Market Recap: Stocks Fall, Oil Skids, Pandora POPS

Markets closed down on Wall Street today: Dow -0.81%, S&P -0.78%, Nasdaq -1.05%, Oil -0.75%, Gold -0.32%.

On the commodities front, Oil (NYSE:USO) declined to $94.77 a barrel. Precious metals also declined, with Gold (NYSE:GLD) falling to $1658 an ounce while Silver (NYSE:SLV) fell 0.18% to settle at $30.66.

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to today’s top stock stories:

Exactly one week before Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is expected to unveil a new Kindle line, the company announced that its Kindle Fire tablet was sold out. The company is scheduled to hold a press event on September 6, where it is widely expected to release a new version of the Fire.

“Kindle Fire is sold out, but we have an exciting roadmap ahead,” chief executive Jeff Bezos said in a news release on Thursday. “We will continue to offer our customers the best hardware, the best prices, the best customer service, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best content ecosystem.”

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is looking to sell off Motorola Mobility’s set-top boxes and related equipment manufacturing unit and is enlisting the help of Barclays (NYSE:BCS) to find buyers. The search company  is hoping to get about $2 billion for the unit, according to Bloomberg.

Pandora’s (NYSE:P) shares increased 14 percent. On Wednesday, the company reported that in the second quarter, it broke even on an adjusted per-share basis. Revenue increased to $89.4 million from the previous year’s $58.3 million. Pandora issued a better-than-expected third quarter revenue forecast.

On the down side, Ciena’s (NASDAQ:CIEN) shares dropped 20 percent. The company reported a better third quarter fiscal loss than compared to the prior year. But it did forecast lower sales than analysts’ estimates.

Vera Bradley’s (NASDAQ:VRA) shares declined 9 percent. The company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings dropped 1.9 percent as margins weakened while revenue improved. Earnings came in low and the company cut its full-year guidance.