Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up 3.5%; Carmike Cinemas Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.62 percent to 17,049.06 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.70 percent to 4,740.50. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.70 percent to 2,007.32. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Friday, basic materials shares rose by 3.24 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Cliffs Natural Resources Inc CLF, Endeavour Silver Corp EXK, and Vale SA (ADR) VALE. In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares rose by just 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Cogent Communications Holdings Inc CCOI, down 4 percent, and NTT Docomo Inc (ADR) DCM, down 3 percent. Top Headline Staples, Inc. SPLS reported weaker-than-expected results for its fourth quarter. Staples posted a quarterly profit of $86 million, or $0.13 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $260 million, or $0.41 per share. Its adjusted earnings came in at $0.26 per share. Its sales dropped 6.9 percent to $5.23 billion from $5.66 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.28 per share, on sales of $5.4 billion. Equities Trading UP Sunedison Inc SUNE shares shot up 14 percent to $1.74. SunEdison and TerraForm Power Inc TERP announced the settlement and termination of Latin America Power acquisition. Shares of Carmike Cinemas, Inc. CKEC got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $29.27 after the company agreed to be acquired by AMC Theatres AMC for $30.00 per share. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co HPE shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $15.53 as the company reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter on Thursday. Equities Trading DOWN Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc VTAE shares dropped 53 percent to $4.62. Vitae Pharmaceuticals reported a Q4 loss $0.52 per share on revenue of $92,000. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Vitae Pharmaceuticals from Buy to Hold. Shares of Ambarella Inc AMBA were down 8 percent to $42.72. Ambarella reported upbeat Q4 results, but the company issued a weak sales forecast for the current quarter. Dougherty & Company downgraded Ambarella from Buy to Neutral. H & R Block Inc HRB was down, falling around 18 percent to $27.11 as the company reported a wider-than-expected loss for its fiscal third quarter on Thursday. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 3.53 percent to $35.79, while gold traded up 0.87 percent to $1,269.20. Silver traded up 3.43 percent Friday to $15.67, while copper rose 3.03 percent to $2.28. Eurozone European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.70 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.51 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index fell 0.38 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.74 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.92 percent, while U.K. shares rose 1.13 percent. Economics The U.S. economy added 242,000 new jobs in February. However, economists were expecting a gain of 190,000 nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9 percent for the month. The U.S. trade gap increased to $45.7 billion in January, versus a revised $44.7 billion, a month ago. U.S. exports declined 2.1 percent to $176.5 billion, while imports dropped 1.3 percent to $222.1 billion.