Mid-Afternoon Market Update: California Resources Surges On Earnings Beat; ArcBest Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.13 percent to 20,978.01 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.21 percent to 6,087.95. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.22 percent to 2,394.65.

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 Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc DO.

In trading on Friday, healthcare shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.31 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Aceto Corporation ACET, down 7 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

Data I/O Corporation DAIO shares shot up 18 percent to $5.65. Data I/O posted Q1 earnings of $0.12 per share on revenue of $7.2 million.

Shares of California Resources Corp CRC got a boost, shooting up 24 percent to $12.59 after the company reported upbeat Q1 profit.

Universal Display Corporation OLED shares were also up, gaining 25 percent to $112.34. 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 59 percent to $1.20. 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 34 percent to $5.75 after the company reported a wider-than-expected Q1 loss and issued a weak FY17 forecast. B. Riley downgraded Brightcove from Buy to Neutral.

ArcBest Corp ARCB was down, falling around 23 percent to $20.20 as the company posted a wider-than-expected Q1 loss.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.27 percent to $46.10 while gold traded down 0.06 percent to $1,227.90.

Silver traded up 0.04 percent Friday to $16.31, while copper rose 0.72 percent to $2.5295.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.65 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.11 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.48 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.55 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.12 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.68 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.

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