Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls Over 250 Points; Expedia Shares Tumble On Earnings Miss

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 1.17 percent to 23,581.12 while the NASDAQ declined 1.33 percent to 6,686.97. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.92 percent to 2,557.32.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the utilities shares climbed 0.48 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ameren Corp AEE, up 4 percent, and Artesian Resources Corporation ARTNA, up 5 percent.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 1.65 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included NGL Energy Partners LP NGL, down 19 percent, and Pioneer Energy Services Corp PES down 8 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

Mobileiron Inc MOBL shares shot up 19 percent to $4.78 following strong quarterly results.

Shares of Alliance One International, Inc. AOI got a boost, shooting up 31 percent to $17.00. 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 24 percent to $8.10 after the company posted better-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its forecast.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aytu Bioscience Inc AYTU shares dropped 23 percent to $2.11 after the company reported Q2 results.

Shares of Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. MGEN were down 21 percent to $5.17. Miragen Therapeutics priced its 7 million share public offering of common stock at $5.50 per share.

Expedia Inc EXPE was down, falling around 18 percent to $101.07 after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.39 percent to $59.69 while gold traded down 0.07 percent to $1,318.10.

Silver traded down 0.68 percent Friday to $16.23, while copper fell 1.25 percent to $3.0435.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 1.45 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.2 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.33 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.25 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.41 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.29 percent.

Economics

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