Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Apple Beats Q3 Expectations

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.38% to 26212.58 while the NASDAQ rose 0.40% to 10630.30. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.12% to 3,242.27.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 4,495,220 cases with around 152,070 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,610,100 COVID-19 cases with 91,260 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 1,638,320 confirmed cases and 35,740 deaths. In total, there were at least 17,321,390 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 673,820 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained 1.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cango Inc. CANG, up 9%, and Jumia Technologies AG JMIA, up 9%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares tumbled by 1.3%.

Top Headline

Apple Inc. AAPL reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter and announced a four-for-one stock split.

The company reported quarterly earnings of $2.58 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $2.04 per share. Revenue jumped 11% year-over-year to $59.7 billion, exceeding the consensus expectations of $52.25 billion.

Apple's flagship product, the iPhone, fetched revenues of $26.42 billion, contributing 44.3% to the top-line. Mac, iPad and wearables, home and accessories accounted for $7.08 billion, $6.58 billion and $6.45 billion of revenues, respectively.

Equities Trading UP

Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc. SONN shares shot up 138% to $6.91. Sonnet Biotherapeutics, last week, reported preclinical results from initial efficacy study exploring combination of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor with interleukins 18 and 12.

Shares of Tiziana Life Sciences PLC TLSA got a boost, shooting 52% to $7.50 after the company said it has submitted a patent application for the potential use of nasally administered Foralumab, a fully human anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of COVID-19, either alone or in combination with other anti-viral drugs.

Pinterest, Inc. PINS shares were also up, gaining 31% to $32.95 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results.The company also reported that global monthly active users grew 39% year over year..

Equities Trading DOWN

Precipio, Inc. PRPO shares tumbled 45% to $3.82. Precipio shares jumped 469% on Thursday after the company reported the commercial launch of coronavirus antibody test.

Shares of Taoping Inc. TAOP were down 40% to $5.30. Taoping shares jumped around 332% on Thursday as the company disclosed that it has upgraded its Taoping Smart Cloud Platform to expand its business.

Socket Mobile, Inc. SCKT was down, falling 26% to $1.74 after the company reported after the company reported a Q2 loss of $0.13 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $0.02 per share

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $40.21, while gold traded up 1.2% to $1,964.90.

Silver traded up 3.5% Friday to $24.175, while copper fell 0.4% to $2.9015.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.2%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.8%, French CAC 40 rose 0.3% and UK shares fell 0.2%.

Economics

US personal income fell 1.1% in June, versus a revised 4.4% decline in May. Personal spending climbed 5.6% in June following a revised 8.5% increase in May.

The employment cost index increased 0.5% for the second quarter, versus analysts’ expectations for a 0.6% rise.

The Chicago PMI increased by 15.3 points to a reading of 51.9 in July.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 72.5 in July, versus a preliminary estimate of 73.2.

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

Data on farm prices for June will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.