Mid-Afternoon Market Update: DeVry Education Rises Following Q1 Results; Pure Storage Shares Tumble

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.22 percent to 18,557.12 while the NASDAQ declined 0.06 percent to 5,237.15. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.16 percent to 2,183.50.

Friday afternoon, the industrial shares gained by 0.09 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included

, and

. In trading on Friday, utilities shares tumbled by 1.21 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included

, down 3 percent, and

, down 3 percent.

reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter and also boosted revenue forecast for the full year. The company reported net earnings of $488.8 million, down from $511.6 million while EPS grew modestly from $1.53 to $1.55 due to lower share count. This was sharply higher than the Street estimates of $0.94 a share. Similarly, Deere reported worldwide net sales of $6.724 billion representing a drop of 11 percent on year-over-year basis. Going forward, the company expects equipment sales to fall about 10 percent for fiscal 2016 and about 8 percent for the fourth quarter. For fiscal 2016, Deere now expects net income to be about $1.350 billion.

shares shot up 14 percent to $24.90. Devry Education reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter. New Students decreased 22.9 percent year-over-year to 8,269 compared with 10,726 previously. Total Students in postsecondary enrollments decreased 8.8 percent year-over-year to 69, 872 compared with 76,584 previously. Shares of

got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $2.31 as the company posted upbeat quarterly results.

shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $23.27. Following Thursday's Department of Justice news regarding privately-managed prisons, GEO Group dropped on Thursday, but rebounded Friday after issuing a response to the DoJ.

shares dropped 14 percent to $11.58. OTR Global downgraded Pure Storage from Positive to Negative. Shares of

were down 16 percent to $4.35. China Finance Online reported Q2 earnings of $0.50 per share on revenue of $11 million.

was down, falling around 17 percent to $21.32. KeyBanc downgraded Olympic Steel from Sector Weight to Underweight.

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.18 percent to $48.98 while gold traded down 0.67 percent to $1,348.10. Silver traded down 1.98 percent Friday to $19.35, while copper rose 0.14 percent to $2.18.

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.81 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 1.16 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 2.18 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.55 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.82 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.15 percent.

There were no major US economic releases Friday.