Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Luxoft Drops On Disappointing Q1 Results; DryShips Shares Surge

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.13 percent to 21,871.23 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.65 percent to 6,257.55. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.20 percent to 2,443.17.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the technology shares rose by 0.89 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Electronics For Imaging, Inc. EFII, up 8 percent, and MakeMyTrip Limited MMYT, up 6 percent.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.64 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included RGC Resources Inc. RGCO, down 5 percent, and American States Water Co AWR, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

J C Penney Company Inc JCP posted a wider-than-expected Q2 loss.

J C Penney posted adjusted loss of $0.09 per share on revenue of $2.96 billion. However, analysts were expecting a loss of $0.05 per share on revenue of $2.84 billion.

Sales at stores open more than 12 months dropped 1.3 percent during the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

DryShips Inc. DRYS shares shot up 49 percent to $3.06. DryShips reported that it will conduct a $100 million private placement and announced termination of stock purchase deal with Kalani.

Shares of Chiasma Inc CHMA got a boost, shooting up 26 percent to $1.83 as the company disclosed that it reached an agreement with the FDA under Special Protocol Assessment for a new Phase 3 clinical trial of octreotide. Chiasma reported a Q2 loss of $6.9 million.

Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. ANW shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $5.20 as the company posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings. Clarksons Platou upgraded Aegean Marine Petroleum from Neutral to Buy.

Equities Trading DOWN

EnteroMedics Inc ETRM shares dropped 40 percent to $1.99. EnteroMedics reported commencement of Series B convertible preferred stock and warrant offering.

Shares of Black Box Corporation BBOX were down 47 percent to $3.95. Black Box reported Q1 operating loss of $0.33 per share on sales of $191.6 million.

Luxoft Holding Inc LXFT was down, falling around 24 percent to $45.95 after the company posted weaker-than-expected Q1 results. Wedbush downgraded Luxoft from Outperform to Neutral.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.35 percent to $48.76 while gold traded up 0.43 percent to $1,295.60.

Silver traded up 0.23 percent Friday to $17.105, while copper rose 0.28 percent to $2.911.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.04 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.60 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.51 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 1.06 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.08 percent.

Economics

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.1 percent for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent growth

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs increased by 3 to 768 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.