Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Drops 100 Points; U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls Top Estimates

US stocks traded mixed on Friday after Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.30% to 35,006.20 while the NASDAQ rose 0.85% to 13,996.17. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.10% to 4,481.87.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer Discretionary shares rose by 2.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, up 12% and Codere Online Luxembourg, S.A. CDRO up 8%.

In trading on Friday, materials shares tumbled by 1.5%.

Top Headline

The US economy unexpectedly added 467,000 jobs in January, surpassing analysts’ expectations for a 150,000 gain. The unemployment rate, however, increased to 4% from 3.9%.

Equities Trading UP

Snap Inc. SNAP shares shot up 47% to $35.97 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results and issued Q1 sales guidance above estimates. The company reported Daily Active Users increased 20% year over year.

Shares of Bill.com Holdings, Inc. BILL got a boost, shooting 32% to $224.10 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 sales results and issued Q3 and FY22 EPS and sales guidance above estimates.

eGain Corporation EGAN shares were also up, gaining 22% to $12.24 after the company reported upbeat Q2 results and issued strong FY22 forecast.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. VNDA shares tumbled 20% to $11.74 after the company announced Phase 3 trial data of tradipitant in treating the symptoms of gastroparesis. The study did not meet its prespecified primary endpoint, the difference between drug and placebo on the severity of nausea from baseline at week 12 of treatment.

Shares of SkyWest, Inc. SKYW were down 19% to $30.56 after the company reported Q4 earnings results. Raymond James and Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock.

Ra Medical Systems, Inc. RMED was down, falling 53% to $0.3299 after the company reported pricing of $12.0 million underwritten public offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.2% to $92.21, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,804.80.

Silver traded up 0.1% Friday to $22.39 while copper fell 1% to $4.4285.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.5%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.35%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.19%. The German DAX fell 1.88%, French CAC 40 fell 0.96% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.91%.

Retail sales in the Eurozone fell 3% in December, while construction PMI rose to 56.6 in January from 52.9 in December. New car registrations in the UK surged 27.5% percent year-over-year to 115,087 units in January, while construction PMI rose to 56.3 in January from 54.3 in December.

The IHS Markit France construction PMI climbed to 52 in January from 50.9 in the previous month, while German construction PMI climbed to 54.4 from 48.2. The IHS Markit Italy’s construction PMI surged to a fresh series high of 68.2 in January. New orders for German manufactured goods rose 2.8% in December, while French industrial production slipped 0.2% in December.

Economics

U.S. jobs cut report for January is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. Analysts expect a rise of 150,000 nonfarm payrolls in January versus a 199,000 increase in the previous month. The unemployment rate is projected to remain at 3.9%.

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

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Check out the full economic calendar here

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 77,150,410 cases with around 920,820 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 41,952,710 cases and 500,080 deaths, while Brazil reported over 26,099,730 COVID-19 cases with 630,000 deaths. In total, there were at least 389,010,750 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,733,250 deaths.