Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; General Electric Revenue Misses Views

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.42 percent to 19,814.86 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.55 percent to 5,570.54. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.50 percent to 2,275.00.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained around 1.10 percent in trading on Friday.

In trading on Friday, healthcare shares rose by just 0.13 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY, down 10 percent, and Keryx Biopharmaceuticals KERX, down 3 percent.

Top Headline

General Electric Company GE reported in-line earnings for its latest quarter, but sales missed expectations.

General Electric posted adjusted Q4 earnings of $0.46 per share on revenue of $33.1 billion. Analysts projected earnings of $0.46 per share on revenue of $33.6 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Interpace Diagnostics Group Inc IDXG shares shot up 36 percent to $6.27 after the company reported a new partnership with Best Med Opinion Ltd of Tel Aviv, Israel.

Shares of Skyworks Solutions Inc SWKS got a boost, shooting up 11 percent to $87.32 after the company reported upbeat results for its first quarter and issued a strong outlook for the second quarter. The company also announced a $500 million buyback plan.

Emerge Energy Services LP EMES shares were also up, gaining 5 percent to $15.37. Goldman Sachs upgraded Emerge Energy from Neutral to Buy.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. PSTI shares dropped 22 percent to $1.09. Pluristem disclosed that it has increased its bought deal offering to $15 million of stock and warrants.

Shares of Affimed NV AFMD were down around 21 percent to $1.70. Affimed priced its public offering of 10,000,000 of its common shares at $1.80 per common share.

Uranium Resources, Inc. URRE was down, falling around 10 percent to $2.42 after the company reported a closing of $9.7 million public offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.92 percent to $53.12 while gold traded up 0.15 percent to $1,203.30.

Silver traded up 0.08 percent Friday to $17.02, while copper fell 0.17 percent to $2.61.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.06 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.24 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.18 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.09 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.24 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.03 percent.

Economics

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

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John C. Williams will speak in San Francisco, Calif. at 1:00 p.m. ET.