Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; American Express Earnings Top Expectations

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.27% to 29,239.99 while the NASDAQ rose 0.27% to 9,427.94. The S&P fell, dropping 0.01% to 3,325.42.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 0.8% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Casa Systems Inc CASA, up 21%, and Atlassian Corporation PLC TEAM, up 12%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

American Express Company AXP reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Friday.

American Express reported fourth-quarter earnings of $2.03 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.01. The company reported quarterly sales of $11.365 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $11.36 billion.

Equities Trading UP

SAExploration Holdings Inc SAEX shares shot up 28% to $2.92 after the company announced two new projects in offshore West Africa valued at $42 million. The company also announced it has reduced its debt by $14.5 million.

Shares of Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp TNXP got a boost, shooting up 30% to $1.81 after the company announced it has completed the required fed-fasting and dose proportionality tests of TNX-102.

eHealth, Inc. EHTH shares were also up, gaining 24% to $119.97 after Cantor Fitzgerald analysts reiterated an Overweight rating on the stock and raised the price target from $120 to $150.

Equities Trading DOWN

Co-Diagnostics Inc CODX shares tumbled 24% to $1.55. Co-Diagnostics priced its 3.45 million common stock offering at $1.45 per share.

Shares of CHF Solutions Inc CHFS were down 41% to $0.48 after the company priced a 3.755 million unit offering at $0.55 per unit.

Harsco Corp HSC was down, falling 17% to $16.10 after the company downgraded its expectations in the preliminary Q4 sales earnings from $448 million to $400 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $55.39, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,558.90.

Silver traded down 0.1% Friday to $17.825, while copper fell 0.3% to $2.719.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.3%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.4%, and the French CAC 40 rose 1.1% while UK shares rose 1.6%.

Economics

The IHS Markit Composite PMI climbed to 53.1 in January, versus a reading of 52.7 in the prior month. The IHS Markit services PMI surged to 53.2 in January versus 52.8 in the prior month.

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