Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles Over 600 Points; International Money Express Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 2.60% to 23712.05 while the NASDAQ fell 3.33% to 8,593.96. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.96% to 2,826.15.

The U.S. is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 1,070,030 coronavirus cases with around 63,010 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 213,430 coronavirus cases with 24,540 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 205,460 confirmed cases and 27,960 deaths. In total, there were at least 3,271,960 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 233,700 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples slipped by just 1.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included The Clorox Company CLX, up 3%, and United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI, up 4%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 5.5%.

Top Headline

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN reported downbeat earnings for its first quarter, while sales exceeded estimates.

Amazon reported quarterly earnings of $5.01 per share on Thursday, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $6.25. The company reported quarterly sales of $75.5 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $73.610 billion.

Amazon said it expects second-quarter sales $75 billion to $81 billion. The company plans to spend $4 billion on coronavirus-related expenses.

Equities Trading UP

Medigus Ltd. MDGS shares shot up 43% to $3.3682 after the company announced it has received its first commercial order for coronavirus testing kits.

Shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. LOCO got a boost, shooting 12% to $13.66 following better-than-expected Q1 sales. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey maintained El Pollo Loco with a Buy and raised the price target from $12 to $14.

International Money Express, Inc. IMXI shares were also up, gaining 23% to $9.90 after reporting upbeat Q1 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pixelworks, Inc. PXLW shares tumbled 20% to $3.66 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 sales.

Shares of Hub Group, Inc. HUBG were down 16% to $40.24 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results. Loop Capital downgraded Hub Group from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $58 to $52.

Marlin Business Services Corp. MRLN was down, falling 17% to $8.78 following Q1 results. The company reported quarterly net loss of $1.00 per share, versus year-ago net income of $0.41 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 5% to $19.78, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,704.60.

Silver traded down 0.1% Friday to $14.97, while copper fell 1.5% to $2.3095.

Euro zone

The UK shares closed lower by 2.34% on Friday.

Economics

The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI slipped to 36.1 in April, versus March's final reading of 48.5.

U.S. construction spending increased 0.9% to an annual rate of $1.36 trillion in March, versus a revised 2.5% declined in the prior month.

The ISM manufacturing index dipped to 41.5 in April, versus a reading of 49.1 in the prior month.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 53 to 325 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.