Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps 125 Points; America's Car-Mart Shares Gain On Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.49 percent to 25,684.64 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.10 percent to 7,813.98. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.35 percent to 2,850.63.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the telecommunication services shares rose 0.63 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cincinnati Bell Inc. CBB up 4 percent, and Globalstar, Inc. GSAT up 4 percent.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell 0.24 percent.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Earnings came in at $2.59 per share, missing estimates of $2.75 per share. Total equipment sales climbed 36 percent to $9.3 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Tel-Instrument Electronics Corp. TIK shares shot up 50 percent to $3.9001 after the company reported a multi-million dollar order from the German government.

Shares of Zoe's Kitchen, Inc. ZOES got a boost, shooting up 33 percent to $12.75 after the company agreed to be acquired by CAVA Group for $12.75 per share.

America's Car-Mart, Inc. CRMT shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $79.50 after the company beat Q1 earnings estimates.

Equities Trading DOWN

Safe-T Group Ltd. SFET shares dropped 26 percent to $10.65 after pricing IPO at $14.35 per ADS.

Shares of Adtalem Global Education Inc. ATGE were down 15 percent to $47.275 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

Amyris, Inc. AMRS was down, falling around 13 percent to $6.5238 after the company announced a 7.65 million share secondary offering at $6.25 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.05 percent to $65.49 while gold traded up 0.03 percent to $1,184.40.

Silver traded down 0.56 percent Friday to $14.63, while copper rose 0.36 to $2.6445.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.10 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.11 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.53 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.22 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.08 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.03 percent.

Economics

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped to 95.3 in August, versus 97.9 in July. However, economists were expecting a reading of 98.1.

The leading economic index increased 0.6 percent in July, versus a 0.5 percent increase in June.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs came in unchanged at 869 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.