Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Fall; Alphabet Beats Q2 Expectations

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.39 percent to 18,384.20 while the NASDAQ declined 0.17 percent to 5,146.10. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.22 percent to 2,165.25.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Friday, financial shares climbed by 0.47 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) MTU and CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. CBL.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 0.75 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Bristow Group Inc BRS, down 4 percent, and Denbury Resources Inc. DNR, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Alphabet Inc GOOGL reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter on Thursday.

Alphabet reported Q2 EPS of $8.42 and revenues of $17.52 billion. Analyst consensus had an EPS estimate of $8.07 and revenues of $16.883 billion.

Alphabet reported $2,172 billion in other revenue, up 33 percent year-over-year and aggregate cost-per-click growth of -1 percent year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

TSR Inc TSRI shares shot up 20 percent to $4.60 following Q4 results. TSR reported Q4 earnings of $0.09 per share on revenue of $15.5 million.

Shares of Data I/O Corporation DAIO got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $3.60 after the company reported Q2 results. Data I/O reported Q2 earnings of $0.06 per share on revenue of $5.8 million.

Senomyx Inc. SNMX shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $3.18. Senomyx posted a Q2 loss of $0.05 per share on revenue of $6.6 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Seres Therapeutics Inc MCRB shares dropped 76 percent to $8.52 after the company reported interim results from SER-109 Phase 2 ECOSPOR study in multiply recurrent clostridium difficile infection. The study did not achieve primary endpoint.

Shares of MDC Partners Inc MDCA were down 24 percent to $13.74 after the company posted downbeat quarterly results and lowered its FY16 sales outlook.

Stericycle Inc SRCL was down, falling around 18 percent to $86.89. Stericycle reported Q2 adjusted earnings of $1.18 per share on sales of $891.6 million, and lowered its 2016 outlook.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.15 percent to $41.08 while gold traded up 0.92 percent to $1,353.50.

Silver traded up 0.88 percent Friday to $20.37, while copper fell 0.05 percent to $2.21.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.40 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 1.56 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 2.13 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.29 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.04 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.25 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 1.2 percent in the second quarter. However, economists were expecting a 2.6 percent rate.

The employment cost index increased 0.6 percent for the second quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.6 percent growth.

The Chicago PMI declined to 55.8 in July, from 56.8 in June. However, economists were projecting a reading of 54.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped to 90.0 in July, versus a reading of 93.5 in June.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan is set to speak at the Independent Bankers Association of New Mexico's Annual Meeting.

Data on farm prices for July will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.