Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Falls 1.4%; Conduent Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.26% to 27,314.52 while the NASDAQ fell 1.42% to 10,950.50. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.37% to 3,336.67.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 4,883,650 cases with around 160,100 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,912,210 COVID-19 cases with 98,490 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,027,070 confirmed cases and 41,580 deaths. In total, there were at least 19,111,120 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 715,160 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares gained 1.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Spark Energy, Inc. SPKE, up 5%, and Clearway Energy, Inc. CWEN, up 4%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 1.8%.

Top Headline

The US unemployment rate declined to 10.2% in July compared to 11.1% in June and versus analysts’ estimates of 10.5%.

The US economy added 1.76 million jobs during July, versus addition of record 4.8 million jobs in the earlier month. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 1.6 million jobs.

Equities Trading UP

Conduent Incorporated CNDT shares shot up 74% to $3.9221 after the company reported stronger-than-expected Q2 results.

Shares of Huttig Building Products, Inc. HBP got a boost, shooting 48% to $2.4399 after Mill Road announced it would acquire the company at $2.75 per share.

Groupon, Inc. GRPN shares were also up, gaining 55% to $25.48 after the company posted a lower-than-expected loss for its second quarter. The company’s sales also exceeded estimates.

Equities Trading DOWN

Everspin Technologies, Inc. MRAM shares tumbled 28% to $6.15 after the company reported downbeat Q2 sales and issued weak Q3 guidance.

Shares of Alteryx, Inc. AYX were down 29% to $120.32. Alteryx reported upbeat Q2 results, but issued weak sales forecast for Q3 and FY20.

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PFSweb, Inc. PFSW was down, falling 18% to $7.93 after reporting a Q2 loss of $0.05 per share on revenue of $82.44 million.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.7% to $41.24, while gold traded down 2% to $2,027.10.

Silver traded down 2.6% Friday to $27.665, while copper fell 4.1% to $2.792.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.29%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.11%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.21%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.66%, French CAC 40 rose 0.09% and UK shares rose 0.09%.

Economics

The US economy added 1.76 million jobs during July, versus addition of record 4.8 million jobs in the earlier month. The US unemployment rate declined to 10.2% in July compared to 11.1% in June.

U.S. wholesale inventories increased 8.8% for June, versus analysts’ expectations for a 4.9% rise.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 4 to 176 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Data on consumer credit for June will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.