Twitter’s shares rose 73 percent on the company’s first day on the market on Thursday. The highly anticipated IPO drove Twitter’s value up to $25 billion dollars and proved that many believe the social networking site is an indispensable part of the internet despite disappointing losses last quarter.
In other news around the markets:
Top Iranian and Western officials are moving closer to reaching a deal on Iran’s nuclear program at talks which began on Thursday. The two sides have announced that they could come to an agreement as early as Friday. Under such an agreement, Iran would make its nuclear program more transparent in exchange for easing sanctions.
- The eurozone took a fresh blow on Friday after Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating on France from ‘AA+’ to ‘AA’. The firm cited high unemployment and the need for structural reforms for the downgrade. French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said the downgrade was an “inaccurate criticism”.
- After Coca-Cola blamed its missed sales targets on a slowdown in Europe and Asia, the company has decided to invest more than $4 billion in new Chinese plants from 2015-2017. Coca-cola has already earmarked an additional $4 billion for China from 2012-2014.
Groupon’s Eric Lefkofsky blamed Gmail for the company’s disappointing earnings release, saying the email website’s decision to filter out promotional emails to a separate folder has taken away from the company’s sales, which were heavily reliant on coupon mailings.
Asian markets ended the week on a low, the Japanese NIKKEI was down 1.00 percent, China’s Shanghai composite lost 1.09 percent and the Shenzhen composite lost 1.35 percent. Only New Zealand’s NZ 50 posted gains, up 0.58 percent.
European Markets
After a strong day on Thursday, European markets were down across the board heading into the weekend. The UK’s FTSE lost 0.48 percent and the eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.58 percent. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.74 percent and the Spanish IBEX was down 0.72 percent.
Energy futures had modest gains, Brent futures were up 0.03 percent and WTI futures rose 0.17 percent. Gold gained 0.03 percent and silver was up 0.20 percent. Industrial metals were down across the board with copper down 0.11 percent and zinc down 0.65 percent.
The euro sunk further to $1.34 and the pound also lost against the dollar, down 0.10 percent. The yen was down 0.08 percent against the greenback and the Australian dollar to American dollar ratio was unchanged.
Earnings
Notable earnings released on Thursday included:
- Priceline.com IncorporatedPCLN reported EPS of $17.33, compared to last year’s EPS of $12.40 per share on revenue of $1.71 billion.
- Groupon, Inc. GRPN reported EPS of $0.02 on revenue of $595.10 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.03 on revenue of $568.55 million.
- Walt Disney CompanyDIS reported third quarter EPS of $0.77 on revenue of $11.60 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.68 on revenue of $10.78 billion.
- Health Net Inc.HNT reported third quarter EPS of $0.83 on revenue of $2.78 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.38 on revenue of $2.78 billion.
Stocks moving in the Premarket included:
- Caterpillar IncCAT gained 0.24 percent in premarket trade after a week of choppy trading.
- Transocean Ltd.RIG lost 1.33 percent in premarket trade after climbing 11.43 percent over the past week.
Earnings reports expected on Friday include:
- Covidien plc.COV is expected to report EPS of $0.90 on revenue of $2.57 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.02 per share on revenue of $3.00 billion.
- Vaalco Energy Inc EGY is expected to report EPS of $0.34, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.13.
- Eldorado Gold CorporationEGO is expected to report third quarter EPS of $0.07 on revenue of $270.32 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.11 on revenue of $281.84 million.
Economics
Friday’s economic calendar will be dominated by US data including US wholesale trade, US nonfarm payrolls, and the US unemployment rate. Trade balance data will be coming from several European countries including Britain, France, and Germany.
For a recap of Thursday’s market action click here
<p>Tune into Benzinga’s pre-market info show with Dennis Dick and Joel Elconin <a> http://optionshouse.benzinga.com/pre-market-show/ />here</a>.</p>
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