Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Monotype Drops On Earnings Miss; LMI Aerospace Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.27 percent to 20,564.70 while the NASDAQ gained 0.14 percent to 5,823.08. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.12 percent to 2,344.39.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed by 1.13 percent in trading on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Unilever plc (ADR) UL, and Grand Canyon Education Inc LOPE.

In trading on Friday, basic materials shares fell by 0.82 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Gibraltar Industries Inc ROCK, down 9 percent, and Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) AUY, down 9 percent.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter and lifted its outlook for fiscal 2017.

Deere’s quarterly net income dropped to $193.8 million, or $0.61 per share, compared to $254.4 million, or $0.80 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Its total net sales declined around 1.5 percent to $4.70 billion. Analysts were projecting earnings of $0.53 per share on revenue $4.67 billion.

Equities Trading UP

LMI Aerospace, Inc. LMIA shares shot up 49 percent to $13.66 after the company agreed to be acquired by Sonaca Group for $14 per share in an all-cash transaction.

Shares of Arista Networks Inc ANET got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $117.47 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter and issued a strong outlook for the current quarter.

Cohu, Inc. COHU shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $15.77 on upbeat quarterly results.

Equities Trading DOWN

X T L Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (ADR) XTLB shares dropped 38 percent to $2.21 after the company reported a $2.5 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. TYPE were down around 12 percent to $20.90 after the company posted downbeat quarterly earnings.

CIRCOR International, Inc. CIR was down, falling around 15 percent to $60.91. CIRCOR reported Q4 adjusted earnings of $0.48 per share on revenue of $158 million. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Circor from Buy to Hold.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.32 percent to $53.58 while gold traded down 0.23 percent to $1,238.80.

Silver traded down 0.25 percent Friday to $18.10, while copper fell 0.64 percent to $2.72.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.03 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.57 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.42 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.65 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.30 percent.

Economics

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent growth.