Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up 1.1%; Cloud Peak Energy Shares Surge Following Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.15 percent to 18,428.55 while the NASDAQ gained 0.11 percent to 5,160.73. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.15 percent to 2,173.32.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Friday, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed by 1.03 percent. Top gainers in the sector included B&G Foods, Inc. BGS and Aaron's, Inc. AAN.

In trading on Friday, industrials shares fell by 0.12 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Stericycle Inc SRCL, down 17 percent, and Embraer SA (ADR) ERJ, down 13 percent.

Top Headline

Alphabet Inc GOOGL reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter on Thursday.

Alphabet reported Q2 EPS of $8.42 and revenues of $17.52 billion. Analyst consensus had an EPS estimate of $8.07 and revenues of $16.883 billion.

Alphabet reported $2,172 billion in other revenue, up 33 percent year-over-year and aggregate cost-per-click growth of -1 percent year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

TSR Inc TSRI shares shot up 35 percent to $5.15 following Q4 results. TSR reported Q4 earnings of $0.09 per share on revenue of $15.5 million.

Shares of Gulf Island Fabrication, Inc. GIFI got a boost, shooting up 28 percent to $8.67 after the company reported strong results for the second quarter.

Cloud Peak Energy Inc. CLD shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $3.38 as the company posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

Seres Therapeutics Inc MCRB shares dropped 70 percent to $10.69 after the company reported interim results from SER-109 Phase 2 ECOSPOR study in multiply recurrent clostridium difficile infection. The study did not achieve primary endpoint.

Shares of MDC Partners Inc MDCA were down 31 percent to $12.52 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results and lowered its FY16 sales outlook.

eHealth, Inc. EHTH was down, falling around 32 percent to $9.53. eHealth reported a Q2 net loss of $0.5 million, versus a year-ago net income of $5.8 million. The company also reported weak quarterly revenue.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1 percent to $41.60 while gold traded up 1.33 percent to $1,359.10.

Silver traded up 0.91 percent Friday to $20.38, while copper rose 0.66 percent to $2.22.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.71 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 1.27 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.96 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.61 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.44 percent, while U.K. shares rose 0.05 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 1.2 percent in the second quarter. However, economists were expecting a 2.6 percent rate.

The employment cost index increased 0.6 percent for the second quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.6 percent growth.

The Chicago PMI declined to 55.8 in July, from 56.8 in June. However, economists were projecting a reading of 54.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped to 90.0 in July, versus a reading of 93.5 in June.