Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Tesla Cuts 7% Of Workforce

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.48 percent to 24,486.15 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.27 percent to 7,103.84. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.56 percent to 2,650.65.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the industrial shares rose 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. JBHT up 6 percent, and NCI Building Systems, Inc. NCS up 8 percent.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 0.1 percent.

Top Headline

Tesla Inc TSLA announced plans to reduce its full-time workforce by 7 percent.

CEO Elon Musk said the job cuts are intended to cut Model 3 production costs — and ultimately the final sales price to the promised, competitive $35,000.

"Tesla will need to make these cuts while increasing the Model 3 production rate and making many manufacturing engineering improvements in the coming months," Musk said in an internal email.

 

Equities Trading UP

Ultra Petroleum Corp. UPL shares got a boost, shooting up 34 percent to $1.0261 after a court ruling was reversed which would have forced the company to pay $400 million to creditors.

Shares of Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. BPTH shot up 46 percent to $3.68 after reporting a 1-for-20 reverse stock split.

Gevo, Inc. GEVO shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $3.2817 after the company announced a partnership with Avfuel to supply sustainable jet fuel at an industry event.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Nautilus, Inc. NLS shares dropped 40 percent to $7.05 after the company issued weak fourth-quarter and FY18 sales guidance.

Shares of Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU were down 32 percent to $12.34 after the company received a CRL from the FDA for its Sacituzumab Govitecan Biologics License Application.

Tyme Technologies, Inc. TYME was down, falling around 36 percent to $2.3814 after the company announced disappointing data from its SM-88 study.

 

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.83 percent to $52.50 while gold traded down 0.81 percent to $ 1,281.80.

Silver traded down 0.88 percent Friday to $15.40, while copper rose 0.43 percent to $2.6915.

 

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.5 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.5 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 2.1 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 1.6 percent while U.K. shares rose 1.7 percent.

Economics

U.S. industrial production rose 0.3 percent for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent increase.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped to 90.7 for January, versus prior reading of 98.3. However, economists were expecting a reading of 97.5.

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