Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; NVIDIA Earnings Beat Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.65 percent to 24,015.69 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.97 percent to 6,842.82. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.86 percent to 2,603.17.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the technology shares climbed 1.57 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Unisys Corporation UIS, up 18 percent, and Quantum Corp QTM, up 11 percent.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 0.01 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included NGL Energy Partners LP NGL, down 20 percent, and Star Group LP SGU down 6 percent.

Top Headline

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter on Thursday.

Nvidia reported fourth quarter-adjusted earnings of $1.72 per share, beating estimates by 56 cents. Sales came in at $2.91 billion, beating estimates by $230 million. The company also issued strong first quarter sales guidance. Nvidia sees Q1 sales of $2.9 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, against estimates of $2.47 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Inpixon INPX shares shot up 47 percent to $4.47 after falling 19.74 percent on Thursday.

Shares of Alliance One International, Inc. AOI got a boost, shooting up 26 percent to $16.35. Alliance One International reported Q3 earnings of $9.80 per share on revenue of $477 million.

Wesco Aircraft Holdings Inc WAIR shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $8.05 following better-than-expected quarterly profit.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aytu Bioscience Inc AYTU shares dropped 19 percent to $2.22 after the company reported Q2 results.

Shares of Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. MGEN were down 17 percent to $5.40. Miragen Therapeutics priced its 7 million share public offering of common stock at $5.50 per share.

Web.com Group Inc WEB was down, falling around 18 percent to $17.77 after reporting results for the fourth quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.47 percent to $60.25 while gold traded down 0.08 percent to $1,317.90.

Silver traded down 0.34 percent Friday to $16.285, while copper fell 0.89 percent to $3.0545.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 1.45 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.42 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.32 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.52 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.44 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.89 percent.

Economics

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.40 percent for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.20 percent growth.

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