Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Up 2%; Brightcove Shares Plummet Following Q1 Results

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.13 percent to 20,925.04 while the NASDAQ declined 0.02 percent to 6,074.21. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.08 percent to 2,391.49.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy sector was the top gainer in the US market on Friday. Top gainers in the sector included Approach Resources Inc. AREX, CARBO Ceramics Inc. CRR, and W&T Offshore, Inc. WTI.

In trading on Friday, healthcare shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.27 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Aceto Corporation ACET, down 6 percent, and NewLink Genetics Corp NLNK, down 6 percent.

Top Headline

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp CTSH posted upbeat earnings for its first quarter on Friday.

Cognizant said it earned $0.84 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $3.55 billion; Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.83 per share on revenue of $3.52 billion.

Cognizant expects Q2 adjusted earnings of at least $0.89 per share, and sales of $3.63 billion to $3.68 billion. It also projects FY17 adjusted earnings of at least $3.64 per share, and sales of $14.56 billion to $14.84 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU shares shot up 25 percent to $6.76. Immunomedics reported a mutual deal with Seattle Genetics for dissolving of previously-agreed upon exclusive global licensing deal. The company announced that CFO Michael Garone will be named interim CEO once the settlement deal is finalized. Immunomedics is now targeting BLA submission for IMMU-132 in mTNBC by late 2017 or early 2018. The company also disclosed that it has raised $125 million in a private placement.

Shares of California Resources Corp CRC got a boost, shooting up 23 percent to $12.47 after the company reported upbeat Q1 profit.

Universal Display Corporation OLED shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $110.35. Universal Display reported Q1 earnings of $0.22 per share on revenue of $55.6 million. The company also issued a strong forecast.

Equities Trading DOWN

Ampliphi Biosciences Corp APHB shares dropped 58 percent to $1.21. AmpliPhi Biosciences disclosed the pricing of its 6.95 million share offering of common stock and warrants.

Shares of Brightcove Inc BCOV were down around 33 percent to $5.84 after the company reported a wider-than-expected Q1 loss and issued a weak FY17 forecast. B. Riley downgraded Brightcove from Buy to Neutral.

National CineMedia, Inc. NCMI was down, falling around 23 percent to $9.02. National CineMedia reported a Q1 loss of $5 million. JP Morgan downgraded National CineMedia from Overweight to Neutral, while FBR Capital downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.09 percent to $46.47 while gold traded up 0.08 percent to $1,229.60.

Silver traded down 0.17 percent Friday to $16.275, while copper rose 0.62 percent to $2.527.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.40 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.88 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.27 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.22 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.82 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.55 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 211,000 new jobs in April. However, economists were expecting a gain of 185,000 nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate declined to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent.

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams will speak in New York at 12:45 p.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is set to speak in Providence, Rhode Island at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, and Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren will speak in Stanford, California at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for the recent week will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.