Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Turns Positive; India Globalization Capital Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.11% to 26,136.02 while the NASDAQ fell 0.33% to 7,811.58. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.04% to 2,890.57.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose 1.1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included AquaVenture Holdings Limited WAAS, up 5%, and Spark Energy, Inc. SPKE, up 3%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

Broadcom Inc AVGO reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company also cut its FY2019 sales guidance.

Second-quarter adjusted earnings came in at $5.21, beating estimates by 3 cents. Sales came in at $5.517 billion, missing estimates by $173 million. The company cut FY2019 sales guidance from $24.5 billion to $22.5 billion.

Equities Trading UP

India Globalization Capital, Inc. IGC shares shot up 52% to $1.29. Holi Hemp, a subsidiary of India Globalization Capital, said Thursday that its application for the cultivation and harvesting of hemp was approved by Arizona’s Department of Agriculture under the terms of its industrial hemp program.

Shares of ArQule, Inc. ARQL got a boost, shooting up 33% to $8.35 after the company announced clinical proof-of-concept data from its ongoing Phase 1 study of ARQ-531 in patients with relapsed/refractory Hematologic Malignancies.

Bluegreen Vacations Corporation BXG shares were also up, gaining 36% to $10.89 after the company entered into a settlement with Bass Pro to reinstate marketing activities; Stifel Nicolaus also upgraded the company's stock from Hold to Buy and raised its price target from $8 to $10.

Equities Trading DOWN

Seres Therapeutics, Inc. MCRB shares tumbled 21% to $2.2250 after the company priced an underwritten public offering of 26,666,667 shares at $2.25 per share.

Shares of Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. NAVB were down 29% to $0.7076. Navidea Biopharmaceuticals priced its 8 million share public offering of common stock at $0.75 per share and regained direct control of Intellectual Property.

SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. SLS was down, falling 59% to $0.1536 after the company priced a 26.37 million share common stock offering at $0.15 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $52.53, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,344.70.

Silver traded down 0.5% Friday to $14.825, while copper fell 1.1% to $2.628.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.40%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.57%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.09%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.60%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.15% while UK shares fell 0.31%.

Economics

U.S. retail sales increased 0.5% for May, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.7% gain.

U.S. industrial production rose 0.4% for May, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2% gain.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 97.9 in June, versus a reading of 100 in May. However, economists expected a 99 reading.

U.S. business inventories rose 0.5% for April, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.4% increase.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 1 to 788 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.