Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Esterline Drops Following Downbeat Q4 Results; Alteryx Shares Jump

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.15 percent to 23,425.85 while the NASDAQ gained 0.02 percent to 6,751.21. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.08 percent to 2,582.59.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed by 0.72 percent.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 1.02 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Whiting Petroleum Corp WLL, down 8 percent, and Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P CLMT down 7 percent.

Top Headline

J C Penney Company Inc JCP reported strong sales for its third quarter.

J C Penney posted quarterly adjusted loss of $0.33 per share on revenue of $2.81 billion. However, analysts were expecting revenue of $2.74 billion. Its comparable sales climbed 1.7 percent during the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Alteryx Inc AYX shares shot up 23 percent to $26.81 after the company posted better-than-expected Q3 results and issued a strong forecast.

Shares of Omeros Corporation OMER got a boost, shooting up 31 percent to $18.52 after the company reported strong results for its third quarter.

Avid Technology, Inc. AVID shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $5.01 following Q3 results. Avid Technology reported Q3 earnings of $0.00 per share on revenue of $105.26 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

LightPath Technologies, Inc. LPTH shares dropped 24 percent to $2.86 following fiscal 2018 first quarter results. Net income for the quarter was around $218,000, versus $140,000 in the year-ago quarter.

Shares of Esterline Technologies Corporation ESL were down 19 percent to $70.85 after missing fourth-quarter earnings and sales estimates. The company issued FY17 earnings guidance far below analyst estimates at $3.65-$4.05.

Kona Grill Inc KONA was down, falling around 25 percent to $2.00 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.91 percent to $56.65 while gold traded down 0.89 percent to $1,276.00.

Silver traded down 0.56 percent Friday to $16.88, while copper fell 0.42 percent to $3.073.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.35 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.48 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.36 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.42 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 0.50 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.68 percent.

Economics

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 97.80 in November, versus prior reading of 100.70. Economists expected a reading of 100.70.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 9 to 738 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.