Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Surge; American Eagle Issues Downbeat Profit Forecast - Big Lots (NYSE:BIG), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO)

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.86 percent to 15,957.10 while the NASDAQ surged 0.69 percent to 4,061.09. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.87 percent to 1,800.49.

Top Headline
American Eagle Outfitters AEO reported a drop in its third-quarter profit and issued a weak earnings forecast for the current quarter.

American Eagle now projects Q4 earnings of $0.26 to $0.30 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.39 per share.

American Eagle's quarterly profit declined to $24.9 million, or $0.13 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $78.6 million, or $0.39 per share. Its adjusted earnings fell to $0.19 per share from $0.41 per share. Its revenue dropped to $857.3 million from $910.4 million. However, analysts were estimating earnings of $0.19 per share on revenue of $856 million.

Equities Trading UP

Geron

GERN

shot up 15.16 percent to $6.76 on a report released by Mayo Clinic on Imetelstat.

Shares of Finisar FNSR got a boost, shooting up 6.49 percent to $23.17 after the company reported upbeat Q2 results and issued a strong Q3 forecast.

Veeva Systems

VEEV

was also up, gaining 7.11 percent to $43.90 after the company reported upbeat Q3 results.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance ULTA were down 19.58 percent to $94.89 after the company reported downbeat third-quarter results and issued a weak fourth-quarter outlook. Piper Jaffray downgraded the stock from Overweight to Neutral and lowered the target price from $129 to $113.

Big Lots

BIG

shares tumbled 10.40 percent to $33.27 after the company reported posted a Q3 loss of $0.17 per share on revenue of $1.15 billion.

Five Below FIVE was down, falling 4.69 percent to $45.51 after the company issued a weak forecast for the fourth quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news,

oil traded down 0.10 percent

to $97.28, while gold traded up 0.43 percent to $1,237.20.

Silver traded up 0.23 percent Friday to $19.62, while copper rose 0.63 percent to $3.25.

Eurozone

European shares

were mostly higher

today. The Spanish Ibex Index tumbled 0.08 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index surged 0.84 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.02 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.77 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.74 percent.

Economics
The U.S. economy added 203,000 jobs in November, while the country's unemployment rate declined to 7.0% from 7.3%. However, economists were projecting a gain of 185,000 jobs.

U.S. consumer spending increased 0.3% in October, while personal income dropped 0.1% in the month. However, economists were expecting a 0.3% gain in both consumer spending and personal income.

The preliminary reading of the Reuter's/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 82.50 in December, from a final reading of 75.10 in November. However, economists were expecting a reading of 76.00.

Data on consumer credit will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs