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

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.5 percent to 25,841.98 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.65 percent to 7,719.12. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.45 percent to 2,828.02.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the information technology shares rose 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Progress Software Corporation PRGS up 17 percent, and BlackBerry Limited BB up 12 percent.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 0.2 percent.

Top Headline

BlackBerry Ltd BB reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter.

BlackBerry reported quarterly earnings of $0.11 per share on sales of $257 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.06 per share on sales of $241.66 million.

Equities Trading UP

Boxlight Corporation BOXL shares got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $3.72 after reporting strong Q4 results.

Shares of Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. SEEL shot up 23 percent to $3.51 after the company provided an update on the pipeline development and corporate highlight.

Progress Software Corporation PRGS shares were also up, gaining 15 percent to $44.02 after the company reported upbeat Q1 results and announced plans to purchase Ipswitch for $225 million in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

ENDRA Life Sciences Inc. NDRA shares dropped 39 percent to $1.72 after the company reported initial findings on its first Human TAEUS feasibility study of liver fat; the data showed a correlation of only .61 between ENDRA's thermoacoustic measurements and MRI.

Shares of SMART Global Holdings, Inc. SGH were down 22 percent to $18.54 after reporting a second-quarter earnings beat, while sales missed estimates. The company issued weak third-quarter earnings and sales guidance.

Chiasma, Inc. CHMA was down, falling around 16 percent to $4.85. Chiasma priced its 6.32 million share offering at $4.75 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.2 percent to $60.62 while gold traded up 0.6 percent to $1,303.40.

Silver traded up 1.2 percent Friday to $15.145, while copper rose 2.4 percent to $2.941.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.5 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.8 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.6 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.9 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.8 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.5 percent.

Economics

Personal incomes rose 0.2 percent in February, while spending increased 0.1 percent last month.

The Chicago PMI declined to 58.7 in March, versus prior reading of 64.7.

New-home sales rose 4.9 percent at an annual pace of 667,000 in February.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak in New York at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles is set to speak in New York at 12:05 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles will speak in New York at 12:45 p.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.