US Stocks Open Lower; Global Payments Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping around 100 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.21% to 33,630.01 while the NASDAQ fell 0.84% to 11,690.24. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.39% to 4 4,065.46.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose by 2.4% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NGL Energy Partners LP NGL, up 15%, and Cameco Corporation CCJ, up 3%.
• In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary shares dipped by 1.3%.

Top Headline

Global Payments Inc GPN reported better-than-expected Q4 results.

• The company reported fourth-quarter FY22 adjusted net revenue growth of 2% year-on-year (4% Y/Y in constant currency) to $2.02 billion, beating the consensus of $2.01 billion. Adjusted EPS of $2.42 beat the consensus of $2.41.

Global Payments expects FY23 adjusted net revenue of $8.575 billion - $8.675 billion, above the consensus of $8.570 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF-A) shares shot up 15% to $9.52 following Q3 results.
• Shares of Edible Garden AG Incorporated EDBL got a boost, shooting 13% to $4.78. Edible Garden, on Thursday, announced research partnership with the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the USDA, and the Environmental Protection Agency to study nanobubble technology.
• Alteryx, Inc. AYX shares were also up, gaining 12% to $67.59 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Hempacco Co., Inc. HPCO shares tumbled 55% to $1.98 after the company announced pricing of an upsized $6.3 million public offering.
• Shares of Lyft, Inc. LYFT were down 35% to $10.56 after the company issued Q1 revenue guidance below analyst estiamtes.
• Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PHAT was down, falling 29% to $8.20 after the company announced it received complete response letters from the FDA relating to its erosive esopgagitis New Drug Application and H. pylori post approval supplement.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $78.92 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,878.30.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $22.175 on Friday while copper fell 1.2% to $4.0465.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.4%. The German DAX fell 1.3% French CAC 40 fell 1.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.9%.

Industrial production in the UK increased by 0.3% month-over-month in December, while the country’s economy shrank 0.5% month-over-month in December. The UK trade deficit widened to £7.2 billion in December 2022 versus a revised £2.3 billion in the previous month. Italy's industrial production increased 1.6% from a month ago in December.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.31%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 2% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.3%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.2%.

Auto sales in China dipped by 35% from a year ago to 1.65 million units in January, while annual inflation rate increased to 2.1% in January from 1.8% in the prior month. China's producer prices fell 0.8% year-over-year in January following a 0.7% decline a month ago. Producer prices in Japan increased 9.5% year-over-year in January.

Economics

The Baker Hughes rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 pm ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 104,731,500 cases with around 1,139,670 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,683,860 cases and 530,750 deaths, while France reported over 39,555,760 COVID-19 cases with 164,510 deaths. In total, there were at least 677,154,880 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,779,410 deaths.