Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Greenbrier Profit Misses Views

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.18 percent to 19,863.38 while the NASDAQ gained 0.16 percent to 5,496.63. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.08 percent to 2,267.11.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Technology shares gained around 0.12 percent in trading on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Virtusa Corporation VRTU, and Nuance Communications Inc. NUAN.

In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.79 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd (ADR) CHT, down 3 percent, and Telecom Italia SpA (ADR) TI, down 2 percent.

Top Headline

Greenbrier Companies Inc GBX reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Friday.

Greenbrier posted Q1 earnings of $0.79 per share on revenue of $552.3 million. However, analysts projected earnings of $0.83 per share on revenue of $489.4 million.

Equities Trading UP

SunLink Health Systems, Inc. SSY shares shot up 34 percent to $1.50. SunLink Health announced plans to buyback 3 million shares at $1.50 per share.

Shares of Stemline Therapeutics Inc STML got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $13.00 after the company reported a FDA deal on expedited pathway to full approval of SL-401 in first-line BPDCN.

Quotient Ltd QTNT shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $6.35 after the company reported positive MosaiQ results from its performance evaluation study.

Equities Trading DOWN

COPsync Inc COYN shares dropped 38 percent to $0.637 after the company reported a $1.15 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Ruby Tuesday, Inc. RT were down around 22 percent to $2.75 after the company posted a wider quarterly loss. Ruby Tuesday reported Q2 adjusted loss of $0.18 per share on revenue of $214.7 million.

AZZ Inc AZZ was down, falling around 6 percent to $60.80 after the company announced weak Q3 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.26 percent to $53.90 while gold traded down 0.63 percent to $1,173.90.

Silver traded down 1.12 percent Friday to $16.45, while copper fell 0.81 percent to $2.52.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.03 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.11 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.15 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.07 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.05 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.01 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 156,000 new jobs in December. However, economists were expecting a gain of 180,000 nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 4.7 percent from 4.6 percent.

The U.S. trade deficit increased around 7 percent to $45.2 billion in November, versus a revised $42.4 billion in October. Economists projected a deficit of $45.9 billion for the month. U.S. exports declined 0.2 percent to $185.8 billion in November, while imports rose 1.1 percent to $231.1 billion.

U.S. factory orders declined 2.40 percent for November, versus economists’ expectations for a 2.20 percent drop.

Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans is set to speak in Chicago at 11:15 a.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak at the American Economic Association's annual meeting in Chicago at 3:30 p.m. ET.