Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Alibaba Tops Q4 Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.21 percent to 23,980.97 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.49 percent to 7,123.05. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.17 percent to 2,634.14.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the telecommunication services shares rose 0.75 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Telecom Argentina S.A. TEO, up 6 percent, and pdvWireless, Inc. PDVW up 4 percent.

In trading on Friday, health care shares tumbled 0.43 percent.

Top Headline

Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Alibaba posted Q1 earnings of $0.91 per share on sales of $9.873 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $0.88 per share on sales of $9.27 billion. Alibaba expects FY19 revenue growth of over 60 percent year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. CVGI shares shot up 21 percent to $8.19 after reporting upbeat Q1 earnings.

Shares of Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PTLA got a boost, shooting up 21 percent to $40.90 after the FDA approved the company's Andexxa, the only antidote indicated for patients treated with rivaroxaban and apixaban.

Medifast, Inc. MED shares were also up, gaining 25 percent to $124.60 after the company reported strong Q1 results and raised its FY18 guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Check-Cap Ltd. CHEK shares dropped 48 percent to $4.60. Check-Cap priced its upsized underwritten offering of public units at $5.50 per unit.

Shares of Performant Financial Corporation PFMT were down 29 percent to $2.20. Performant Financial is expected to release Q1 earnings on May 8.

Universal Electronics Inc. UEIC was down, falling around 31 percent to $31.40 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.41 percent to $68.71 while gold traded down 0.16 percent to $1,310.60.

Silver traded down 0.16 percent Friday to $16.42, while copper fell 0.58 percent to $3.0625.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.16 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.33 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.49 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.27 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.23 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.36 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 164,000 jobs in April. However, economists were expecting a gain of 189,000 jobs. The unemployment rate declined to 3.9 percent from 4.1 percent.

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