Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Exxon Mobil Earnings Beat Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.83% to 26363.73 while the NASDAQ fell 1.29% to 8,006.87. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.88% to 2,927.55.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 0.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Rafael Holdings, Inc. RFL, up 5%, and Redfin Corporation RDFN, up 6%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of 73 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 69 cents. Oil-equivalent production was 3.9 million barrels per day, up 7% from the second quarter of 2018.

Equities Trading UP

Aphria Inc. APHA shares shot up 29% to $6.73 after reporting a huge increase in quarterly net revenue. Fourth-quarter net revenue came in at CA$128.6 million. This isup from CA$12.03 million in the same period last year, an increase of 969%.

Shares of Regional Health Properties, Inc. RHE got a boost, shooting up 30% to $2.7355 after the company reported the sale of 3 properties for $26.1 million. The company extinguished $24.7 million in secured debt.

BlackLine, Inc. BL shares were also up, gaining 22% to $52.08 after reporting upbeat Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Glu Mobile Inc. GLUU shares tumbled 41% to $4.4950 after the company reported downbeat results for its second quarter and lowered its annual outlook.

Shares of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. ACOR were down 39% to $3.71 after the company reported Q2 results.

Fluidigm Corporation FLDM was down, falling 38% to $7.48 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 sales results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.6% to $55.35, while gold traded up 1.2% to $1,449.50.

Silver traded up 0.1% Friday to $16.185, while copper fell 2.9% to $2.5895.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.9%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.9%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.6%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 2.6%, and the French CAC 40 fell 2.9% while UK shares fell 1.8%.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 164,000 new jobs in July, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7%. However, economists were expecting a gain of 164,000 jobs.

U.S. trade deficit fell 0.3% to $55.2 billion in June. However, economists were projecting a $54.6 billion deficit. Exports fell 2.1% to $206.3 billion, while imports slipped 1.7% to $261.5 billion in June.

The final reading of University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 98.4 in July, compared to 98.2 in June. However, economists were expecting a reading of 98.5.

U.S. factory orders increased 0.6% for June.

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