Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; NVIDIA Beats Q4 Views

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.30 percent to 20,233.87 while the NASDAQ gained 0.16 percent to 5,724.50. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.24 percent to 2,313.34.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 1.13 percent in trading on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Gran Tierra Energy Inc. GTE, and Enerplus Corp (USA) ERF.

In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares dropped by 0.02 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Telecom Italia SpA (ADR) TI, down 3 percent, and Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. (ADR) TKC, down 3 percent.

Top Headline

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Thursday.

NVIDIA reported Q4 adjusted earnings of $1.13 per share on revenue of $2.17 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.83 per share on revenue of $2.10 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Sierra Wireless, Inc. (USA) SWIR shares shot up 33 percent to $24.75 after the company posted strong Q4 results.

Shares of Sears Holdings Corp SHLD got a boost, shooting up 30 percent to $7.19. Sears announced plans to reduce outstanding debt and pension obligations by at least $1.5 billion. The company also issued a strong revenue forecast.

Infinera Corp. INFN shares were also up, gaining 25 percent to $11.77 after the company reported stronger-than-expected Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

ChannelAdvisor Corp ECOM shares dropped 24 percent to $10.85 following Q4 results. ChannelAdvisor reported Q4 net income of $5.8 million on revenue of $31.8 million.

Shares of TRACON Pharmaceuticals Inc TCON were down around 20 percent to $3.90. TRACON Pharmaceuticals disclosed that the combination of TRC105 and Avastin did not improve median PFS vs. single agent Avastin in recurrent GBM patients.

Ubiquiti Networks Inc UBNT was down, falling around 16 percent to $54.19 after reporting downbeat Q2 earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.75 percent to $53.93 while gold traded down 0.78 percent to $1,227.10.

Silver traded down 0.43 percent Friday to $17.67, while copper rose 2.58 percent to $2.72.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.01 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.75 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.77 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.12 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.02 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.46 percent.

Economics

U.S. import prices increased 0.4 percent in January, versus a revised 0.5 percent growth in December. Export prices rose 0.1 percent in January.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for February is schedule for release 10:00 a.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The U.S. Treasury budget data for January is schedule for release 2:00 p.m. ET.