Mid-Day Market Update: ZS Pharma Jumps On Acquisition News; Men's Wearhouse Shares Slide

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.23 percent to 17,822.28 while the NASDAQ slipped 0.01 percent to 5,127.44. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.45 percent to 2,090.47. Leading and Lagging Sectors In trading on Friday, financial shares jumped by 0.32 percent. Top gainers in the sector included SVB Financial Group SIVB, up 7 percent, and Walter Investment Management Corp WAC, up 10 percent. Utilities shares declined around 3.66 percent in Friday's trading. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included ITC Holdings Corp. ITC, down 7 percent, and South Jersey Industries Inc SJI, off 9 percent. Top Headline Humana Inc HUM reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the third quarter on Friday, but the company's sales missed analysts' expectations. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company reported a quarterly profit of $314 million, or $2.09 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $290 million, or $1.85 per share. Excluding items, the company's earnings increased to $2.16 per share. Its total revenue rose 9.2 percent to $13.36 billion, while premiums and services revenue gained 9 percent to $13.23 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $2.13 per share on revenue of $13.64 billion. Equities Trading UP ZS Pharma Inc ZSPH shares shot up 41 percent to $89.19 after the company agreed to be acquired by AstraZeneca plc (ADR) AZN for $2.7 billion. Shares of Stamps.com Inc. STMP got a boost, shooting up 32 percent to $100.50 on stronger-than-expected Q3 results. TrueCar Inc TRUE shares were also up, gaining 29 percent to $7.89 after the company reported upbeat Q3 results. Equities Trading DOWN Iconix Brand Group Inc ICON shares tumbled 55 percent to $7.21 after the company reported that it will restate previously-filed statements for Q1, Q2 '15, FY13 and FY14. The company also reported preliminary Q3 results and updated its outlook for the full year 2015. Brean Capital downgraded Iconix Brand Group from Buy to Neutral. Shares of Men's Wearhouse Inc MW were down 43 percent to $22.67 after the company lowered its earnings forecast for third quarter and year ending in January. Sierra Wireless, Inc. (USA) SWIR was down, falling 23 percent to $19.22 after the company reported weak Q3 results. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 1.92 percent to $44.33, while gold traded down 1.61 percent to $1,086.40. Silver traded down 1.82 percent Friday to $14.71, while copper fell 0.73 percent to $2.24. Eurozone European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.24 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.04 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.18 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.87 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.02 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.19 percent. Economics The U.S. economy added 271,000 new jobs in October, while the unemployment rate declined to 5 percent in the month. However, economists were projecting a gain of 180,000 nonfarm jobs for October. Data on consumer credit for September will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.