U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index falling more than 300 points on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.78% to 40,347.51 while the NASDAQ fell 0.29% to 17,819.43. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.29% to 5,528.67.

Check This Out: Wall Street’s Most Accurate Analysts Weigh In On 3 Real Estate Stocks Delivering High-Dividend Yields

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 0.7% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Schlumberger N.V. (NYSE:SLB) reported better-than-expected second-quarter results.

The company said revenue increased 13% year-over-year to $9.139 billion, beating the consensus of $9.076 billion. Adjusted EPS increased 18% Y/Y to 85 cents, above the consensus of 83 cents.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Also Check This Out: How To Earn $500 A Month From Verizon Stock Ahead Of Q2 Earnings Report

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $82.50 while gold traded down 2.2% at $2,402.90.

Silver traded down 2.8% to $29.365 on Friday, while copper fell 0.5% to $4.2595.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.65%, Germany's DAX fell 0.80% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.57%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.48%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.53%.

Construction output in the Eurozone fell 2.4% year-over-year in May compared to a revised 1.5% decline in the prior month. Passenger car registrations in the European Union climbed 4.3% year-over-year to 1.1 million units in June.

Regular pay in the U.K., excluding bonus payment, rose 5.7% year-over-year to GBP 643/week during the three months to May, while the unemployment rate came in unchanged at 4.4% from March to May.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.16%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dipping 2.03%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.17% and India's S&P BSE Sensex declining 0.91%.

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate came in unchanged at 3% during the three months ending June. Japan reported a trade surplus of JPY 224.04 billion in June, compared to market views for a deficit of JPY 240 billion.

Economics

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

Now Read This: Top 3 Materials Stocks That May Implode This Month