Mid-Afternoon Market Update: AZZ Drops On Weak Q3 Results; Stemline Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.46 percent to 19,989.79 while the NASDAQ gained 0.82 percent to 5,532.77. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.54 percent to 2,281.22.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Technology shares gained around 0.85 percent in trading on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Virtusa Corporation VRTU, and Ceragon Networks Ltd CRNT.

In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.99 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) CHT, down 3 percent, and Shenandoah Telecommunications Company SHEN, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Greenbrier Companies Inc GBX reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Friday.

Greenbrier posted Q1 earnings of $0.79 per share on revenue of $552.3 million. However, analysts projected earnings of $0.83 per share on revenue of $489.4 million.

Equities Trading UP

SunLink Health Systems, Inc. SSY shares shot up 30 percent to $1.47. SunLink Health announced plans to buy back 3 million shares at $1.50 per share.

Shares of Stemline Therapeutics Inc STML got a boost, shooting up 14 percent to $12.90 after the company reported a FDA deal on expedited pathway to full approval of SL-401 in first-line BPDCN.

Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc PCRX shares were also up, gaining 17 percent to $39.80. Pacira Pharmaceuticals reported preliminary 2016 revenue of $276.4 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

COPsync Inc COYN shares dropped 39 percent to $0.630 after the company reported a $1.15 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Ruby Tuesday, Inc. RT were down around 24 percent to $2.70 after the company posted a wider quarterly loss. Ruby Tuesday reported Q2 adjusted loss of $0.18 per share on revenue of $214.7 million.

AZZ Inc AZZ was down, falling around 6 percent to $60.60 after the company announced weak Q3 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.48 percent to $54.02 while gold traded down 0.53 percent to $1,175.00.

Silver traded down 0.61 percent Friday to $16.54, while copper rose 0.37 percent to $2.55.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.05 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.29 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.23 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.05 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.08 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.14 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 156,000 new jobs in December. However, economists were expecting a gain of 180,000 nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 4.7 percent from 4.6 percent.

The U.S. trade deficit increased around 7 percent to $45.2 billion in November, versus a revised $42.4 billion in October. Economists projected a deficit of $45.9 billion for the month. U.S. exports declined 0.2 percent to $185.8 billion in November, while imports rose 1.1 percent to $231.1 billion.

U.S. factory orders declined 2.40 percent for November, versus economists’ expectations for a 2.20 percent drop.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak at the American Economic Association's annual meeting in Chicago at 3:30 p.m. ET.