Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps 125 Points; Timkensteel Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.48 percent to 26,518.35 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.76 percent to 7,467.65. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.71 percent to 2,859.50.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the technology sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Intel Corporation INTC and VMware, Inc. VMW.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell 0.34 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Artesian Resources Corporation ARTNA, down 3 percent, and California Water Service Group CWT down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Honeywell International Inc. HON reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and raised its FY18 earnings outlook.

Honeywell earned $1.85 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $10.843 billion, while Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.84 per share on revenue of $10.75 billion.

Honeywell now expects FY18 earnings of $7.75 to $8 per share, versus earlier forecast of $7.55 to $7.80 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Solid Biosciences LLC SLDB shares shot up 50 percent to $24.07. Solid Biosciences priced its 7.8 million share IPO at $16 per share.

Shares of Armo Biosciences, Inc. ARMO got a boost, shooting up 74 percent to $29.60. ARMO BioSciences priced its IPO at $17 per share.

Abaxis Inc ABAX shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $76.47 after the company posted upbeat Q3 earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bancorp Inc TBBK shares dropped 11 percent to $10.02. The Bancorp reported Q4 loss of $0.22 per share on Thursday.

Shares of Timkensteel Corp TMST were down 10 percent to $17.06. TimkenSteel reported a Q4 loss of $0.77 per share on revenue of $341.4 million.

Winnebago Industries, Inc. WGO was down, falling around 10 percent to $44.30. Northcoast Research downgraded Winnebago from Buy to Neutral.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.96 percent to $66.14 while gold traded down 0.79 percent to $1,357.20.

Silver traded down 1.05 percent Friday to $17.43, while copper fell 0.54 percent to $3.199.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.50 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.58 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.31 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.87 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.65 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders rose 2.9 percent for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.80 percent growth

Gross Domestic Product rose 2.6 percent for the fourth quarter. Economists were expecting a 3 percent gain in GDP.

U.S. imports gained 13.9 percent in the fourth quarter, while exports climbed 6.9 percent.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 12 to 759 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.