Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Mixed as Cliffs Rises

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.17 percent to 15,529.85 while the NASDAQ rose 0.06 percent to 3,6076.94. The S&P also fell, declining 0.09 percent to 1,688.41.

Top Headline
Yesterday, Zynga ZNGA issued a weak outlook for the current quarter. However, the company reported upbeat Q2 results.

Zynga posted a quarterly loss of $15.8 million, or $0.02 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $22.8 million, or $0.03 per share.

For the current quarter, Zynga expected an adjusted loss of $0.09 per share to $0.05 per share. However, analysts were expecting a loss of $0.02 per share.

Equities Trading UP
Activision Blizzard ATVI shot up 14.82 percent to $17.43 after Vivendi SA announced its plans to sell its majority stake in Activision Blizzard for $8.2 billion.

Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources CLF got a boost, rising 8.40 percent to $19.92 after the company reported upbeat Q2 results.

Starbucks SBUX was also up, gaining 7.67 percent to $73.41 on upbeat earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Expedia EXPE were down 26.05 percent to $48.07 after the company reported downbeat second-quarter results.

Zynga ZNGA was down, falling 14.07 percent to $3.01 after the company issued a weak outlook for the current quarter.

Cirrus Logic CRUS shares tumbled 12.75 percent to $17.74 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 revenue.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.08 percent to $107.00, while gold traded down 0.50 percent to $1,322.10.

Silver traded down 2.03 percent Friday to $19.84, while copper fell 2.67 percent to $3.10.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly lower today. The Spanish Ibex Index surged 0.86 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.06 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.65 percent and the French CAC 40 gained 0.32 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.50 percent.