Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; Citigroup Earnings Beat Expectations

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.02 percent to 24,477.00 while the NASDAQ declined 0.1 percent to 7,133.20. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.03 percent to 2,664.85.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday morning, the utilities shares climbed 0.83 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Spark Energy, Inc. SPKE, up 3 percent, and Exelon Corporation EXC, up 2 percent.

In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 0.27 percent.

Top Headline

Citigroup Inc C reported better-than-expected profit for its first quarter.

The company said it earned $1.68 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $18.9 billion versus expectations of $1.61 per share on revenue of $18.86 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Pulse Biosciences, Inc. PLSE shares shot up 12 percent to $20.34 after the company disclosed positive results from its first multi-center study of NPS technology for seborrheic keratosis lesions.

Shares of Net Element, Inc. NETE got a boost, shooting up 7 percent to $8.633 after gaining 8.93 percent on Thursday.

First Republic Bank FRC shares were also up, gaining 3 percent to $93.06 after reporting upbeat quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

SemiLEDs Corporation LEDS shares dropped 27 percent to $4.00. SemiLEDs posted a Q2 net loss of $0.32 per share, versus a year-ago net loss of $0.11 per share. Its revenue fell 23 percent to $1.5 million.

Shares of EyeGate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. EYEG were down 21 percent to $0.30. EyeGate Pharma priced its 35.16 million share offering at $0.32 per share.

Sphere 3D Corp. ANY was down, falling around 45 percent to $0.605 after the company reported pricing of $2.3 million public offering of common stock and warrants.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.18 percent to $66.95 while gold traded down 0.23 percent to $1,338.80.

Silver traded up 0.01 percent Friday to $16.475, while copper rose 0.52 percent to $3.0795.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.43 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.86 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.35 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.75 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.43 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.12 percent.

Economics

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 97.8 in April, versus 101.4 in March. Economists projected a reading of 101.

U.S. job openings slipped to 6.05 million, compared to 6.23 million in January.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan is set to speak in Odessa, Texas at 1:00 p.m. ET.