Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Drop; Apple Rumored To Buy Beats Electronics

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.30 percent to 16,502.17 while the NASDAQ tumbled 0.27 percent to 4,040.43. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.40 percent to 1,868.19.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed around 0.03 percent in trading on Friday. Leading the sector was strength from Polypore International PPO and The E. W. Scripps Company SSP. In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.59 percent.

Meanwhile, top decliners in the sector included Internet Initiative Japan IIJI, down 4.3 percent, and 8x8 EGHT, off 3.6 percent.

Top Headline
Apple AAPL is in talks to acquire headphone maker Beats Electronics, according to a Financial Times report from Thursday afternoon. The deal is rumored to be around $3.2 billion, which would make it Apple's largest acquisition to date.

Equities Trading UP
Universal Display OLED shares shot up 10.56 percent to $27.50 after the company reported stronger-than-expected Q1 results.

Shares of Polypore International PPO got a boost, shooting up 9.45 percent to $38.00 after the company reported Q1 results. DA Davidson upgraded Polypore from Neutral to Buy and lifted the price target from $36.00 to $42.00.

Clean Energy Fuels CLNE shares were also up, gaining 12.01 percent to $9.89 after the company reported a Q1 loss of $0.30 per share on revenue of $95.30 million.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Rocket Fuel FUEL were 23.80 percent to $21.19 after the company issued a weak outlook. Goldman Sachs downgraded Rocket Fuel from Buy to Neutral and cut the price target from $69.00 to $25.00.

Ubiquiti Networks UBNT shares tumbled 16.46 percent to $34.56 on Q3 results. Ubiquiti reported its quarterly earnings of $0.50 per share on revenue of $148.30 million.

PROS Holdings PRO was down, falling 24.10 percent to $19.75 after the company posted Q1 earnings of $0.01 per share on revenue of $42.90 million. Pacific Crest Securities downgraded the stock from Outperform to Sector Perform.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.52 percent to $100.78, while gold traded up 0.18 percent to $1,290.00.

Silver traded up 0.17 percent Friday to $19.17, while copper rose 0.20 percent to $3.07.

Eurozone
European shares were lower today.

The eurozone's STOXX 600 dipped 0.27 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.88 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.06 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.11 percent and the French CAC 40 tumbled 0.50 percent while UK shares dropped 0.20 percent.

Economics
US wholesale inventories rose 1.10% in March, versus economists' expectations for a 0.50% gain.