Mid-Afternoon Market Update: NeoPhotonics Drops After Disappointing Q3 Results; Bristow Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.05 percent to 17,940.25 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.13 percent to 5,065.16. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.20 percent to 2,092.84.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, healthcare shares gained by 0.99 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cerus Corporation CERS, and Air Methods Corp AIRM.

In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.29 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Telecom Italia SpA (ADR) TI, down 4 percent, and Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (ADR) IIJI, down 3 percent.

Top Headline

Humana Inc HUM delivered better than expected results for the third quarter. However, the company’s adjusted EPS forecast came in below the estimates.

Humana reported quarterly adjusted EPS of $3.18, beating estimates by $0.03. Its revenue of $13.69 billion exceeded expectations by $0.28 billion.

The company expects full adjusted EPS to be about $9.50, versus Street expectations of $9.51.

Equities Trading UP

ConforMIS Inc CFMS shares shot up 35 percent to $9.14 after the company posted better-than-expected Q3 earnings.

Shares of Christopher & Banks Corporation CBK got a boost, shooting up 24 percent to $1.50 after the company reported strong preliminary revenue for the third quarter.

Bristow Group Inc BRS shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $12.07 after the company reported a smaller-than-expected Q2 loss.

Equities Trading DOWN

MDC Partners Inc MDCA shares dropped 60 percent to $3.38. MDC Partners reported a Q3 loss of $0.64 per share on revenue of $349.3 million.

Shares of Invuity, Inc. IVTY were down 44 percent to $5.20. Invuity reported a Q3 loss of $0.56 per share on revenue of $8.5 million.

NeoPhotonics Corp NPTN was down, falling around 23 percent to $11.20 after the company posted downbeat Q3 results and issued a weak forecast the current quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.16 percent to $44.14 while gold traded down 0.01 percent to $1,303.20.

Silver traded down 0.33 percent Friday to $18.36, while copper rose 0.60 percent to $2.26.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.83 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index slipped 0.99 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.62 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.65 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.78 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.43 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 161,000 new jobs in October, while the unemployment rate declined tp 4.9 percent from 5 percent. Economists were expecting a gain of 175,000 nonfarm jobs.

The U.S. trade deficit dropped 10 percent to $36.4 billion in September, versus a revised $40.5 billion in August. However, economists were expecting a deficit of $36.9 billion. Exports increased 0.6 percent to $189.2 billion, while imports declined 1.3 percent to $225.6 billion in September.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer will speak at the International Monetary Fund at 4:00 p.m. ET.