Mid-Afternon Market Update: Restoration Hardware Tumbles On Weak Guidance; Stillwater Mining Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.40 percent to 19,694.00 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.36 percent to 5,436.65. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.37 percent to 2,254.50.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, healthcare shares gained by 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Emergent Biosolutions Inc EBS, and Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. SGMO.

In trading on Friday, basic materials shares fell by 0.98 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Harmony Gold Mining Co. (ADR) HMY, down 7 percent, and McEwen Mining Inc MUX, down 8 percent.

Top Headline

Finisar Corporation FNSR reported upbeat results for its second quarter and issued a strong forecast for the current quarter on Thursday.

Finisar posted adjusted earnings of $0.58 per share on revenue of $369.9 million. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.46 per share on revenue of $361 million.


Equities Trading UP

Emergent Biosolutions Inc EBS shares shot up 21 percent to $32.83 after the company disclosed that it will support HHS anthrax preparedness strategy with up to $1 billion in BioThrax deliveries to the Strategic National Stockpile.

Shares of Stillwater Mining Company SWC got a boost, shooting up 18 percent to $17.40 after Sibanye Gold Ltd (ADR) SBGL announced plans to acquire Stillwater for $18.00 per share in cash.

InvenSense Inc INVN shares were also up, gaining 28 percent to $10.62 following news from Reuters that the U.S. chipmaker was in talks to be acquired by Japan-based TDK Corp. The source for the story was unwilling to be identified, as deliberations were confidential, but disclosed that TDK had offered $12 per share, an over 44 percent premium from where InvenSense was trading before the news broke, according to Reuters.


Equities Trading DOWN

Superconductor Technologies, Inc. SCON shares dropped 29 percent to $1.42 after the company reported an offering of $10.2 million.

Shares of Clearside Biomedical Inc CLSD were down 20 percent to $9.26. Clearside Biomedical priced an underwritten public offering of 4,000,000 shares at $9.00 per share.

Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc RH was down, falling around 19 percent to $31.75. Restoration Hardware reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, but issued a weak outlook for the holiday quarter.

 

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.24 percent to $51.47 while gold traded down 0.90 percent to $1,161.80.

Silver traded down 0.80 percent Friday to $16.96, while copper rose 0.82 percent to $2.65.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.97 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.26 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.73 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.22 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.60 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.33 percent.

Economics

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 98.00 in December, versus a prior reading of 93.80. Economists were expecting a reading of 94.50.

U.S. wholesale inventories declined 0.40 percent for October, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.40 percent drop.

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Posted In: EarningsNewsEurozoneCommoditiesM&AGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMoversMid-Afternon Market Update
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