Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; BlackBerry To Acquire Good Technology For $425M

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 1.65 percent to 16,105.18 while the NASDAQ slipped 1.16 percent to 4,678.75. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.50 percent to 1,921.80.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

In trading on Friday, healthcare shares slipped by just 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARIA, up 7 percent, and STAAR Surgical Company STAA, up 3 percent.

Energy shares slipped by 2.51 percent in Friday’s trading. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Arch Coal Inc ACI, down 11 percent, and PHI Inc. PHII, off 9 percent.

Top Headline

BlackBerry Ltd BBRY agreed to acquire Good Technology for $425 million in cash.

Equities Trading UP

SkyWest, Inc. SKYW shares shot up 8 percent to $17.43. Cowen upgraded the rating on SkyWest from Market Perform to Outperform, while raising the price target from $16 to $19.

Shares of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc SHOS got a boost, shooting up 4 percent to $7.25. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores posted a Q2 profit of $0.07 per share on revenue of $619.6 million.

BlackBerry Ltd BBRY shares were also up, gaining 3 percent to $7.68 after the company agreed to acquire Good Technology for $425 million in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Vince Holding Corp VNCE shares tumbled 37 percent to $5.80. Vince Holdings reported downbeat Q2 results and issued a weak forecast. The company named David Dtefko as CFO and Mark Brody as interim CEO.

Shares of UTi Worldwide Inc. UTIW were down 19 percent to $5.30. UTi Worldwide posted a quarterly net loss of ($0.70) per share on sales of $913.93 million.

Infoblox Inc BLOX was down, falling 9 percent to $18.01. Infoblox reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter. However, the company issued a weak earnings forecast for the current quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.22 percent to $46.18, while gold traded down 0.01 percent to $1,124.40.

Silver traded down 0.56 percent Friday to $14.63, while copper fell 2.60 percent to $2.32.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.78 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index slipped 2.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 2.49 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX climbed 2.16 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 2.31 percent, while U.K. shares fell 1.73 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 173,000 new jobs in August, while the unemployment rate shrank to 5.1 percent from 5.3 percent. However, economists were projecting an addition of 220,000 nonfarm jobs.