Mid-Afternoon Market Update: CyberOptics Drops After Q2 Results; Aaron's Shares Surge

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.08 percent to 21,814.41 while the NASDAQ declined 0.08 percent to 6,377.23. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.16 percent to 2,471.35.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Healthcare shares climbed by 0.37 percent in the US market on Friday. Top gainers in the sector included LeMaitre Vascular Inc LMAT, and ImmunoGen, Inc. IMGN.

In trading on Friday, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares fell 0.53 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Altria Group Inc MO, down 10 percent, and GNC Holdings Inc GNC, down 7 percent.

Top Headline

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its second quarter, while sales exceeded estimates.

Amazon reported Q2 earnings of 40 cents per share, which doesn't compare to analyst estimates of $1.42; The company reported EPS of $1.78 in the year-ago period. Sales came in ahead of predictions at $38 billion, beating consensus estimates by $820 million.

The e-commerce giant forecasts FY 2017 sales of $39.25 billion-$41.75 billion, against estimates of $39.9 billion.

Equities Trading UP

LeMaitre Vascular Inc LMAT shares shot up 21 percent to $34.45 as the company posted upbeat Q2 earnings and issued a strong FY17 forecast.

Shares of ArcBest Corp ARCB got a boost, shooting up 22 percent to $26.27 as the company reported upbeat Q2 earnings.

Aaron's, Inc. AAN shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $46.92 as the company posted stronger-than-expected Q2 results. The company also disclosed that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of its largest franchisee, SEI/Aaron's, Inc.

Equities Trading DOWN

Destination Maternity Corp DEST shares dropped 42 percent to $1.72. Destination Maternity and Orchestra-Prémaman reported termination of merger.

Shares of Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc ATNM were down 30 percent to $0.679. Actinium reported a proposed public offering of common stock and warrants to purchase stock.

CyberOptics Corporation CYBE was down, falling around 27 percent to $17.35 as the company reported downbeat Q2 earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.35 percent to $49.70 while gold traded up 0.73 percent to $1,275.70.

Silver traded up 0.74 percent Friday to $16.695, while copper rose 0.03 percent to $2.8785.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.04 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.63 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.94 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.40 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.07 percent while U.K. shares fell 1 percent.

Economics

U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the second quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 2.6 percentgrowth.

The final reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index increased to 93.4 in July, versus a preliminary reading of 93.1. Economists expected a reading of 93.1.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 2 to 766 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.