Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Progress Software Surges Following Upbeat Q1 Results; RH Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.63 percent to 25,878.23 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.7 percent to 7,722.49. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.52 percent to 2,829.99.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the health care shares rose 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included GALAPAGOS NV/S ADR GLPG up 23 percent, and Viking Therapeutics Inc VKTX up 19 percent.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 0.3 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

Progress Software Corporation PRGS shares got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $44.03 after the company reported upbeat Q1 results and announced plans to purchase Ipswitch for $225 million in cash.

Shares of Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. APDN shot up 37 percent to $0.7374 after the company announced an exclusive cannabis licensing and cooperation agreement with Theracann International.

Galapagos NV GLPG shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $118.71. Gilead Sciences and GALAPAGOS announced that a Phase 3 study, dubbed FINCH3, of its investigational, oral, selective JAK1 inhibitor filgotinib in adults with moderately-to-severely active rheumatoid arthritis achieved its primary endpoint in the proportion of patients achieving an American College of Rheumatology 20 percent response at Week 24.

Equities Trading DOWN

ENDRA Life Sciences Inc. NDRA shares dropped 39 percent to $1.7199 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 Restoration Hardware Holdings, Inc RH were down 20 percent to $105.45. RH reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company also lowered its full-year outlook.

DPW Holdings, Inc. DPW was down, falling around 60 percent to $0.2850 after the company announced a public offering of its common stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.3 percent to $60.09 while gold traded up 0.4 percent to $1,300.20.

Silver traded up 1 percent Friday to $15.12, while copper rose 2.2 percent to $2.936.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.6 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.72 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.97 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.86 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.02 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.62 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.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 8 to 816 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.