Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Lamb Weston Posts Upbeat Q2 Earnings

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.81% to 28634.56 while the NASDAQ fell 0.81% to 9,018.52. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.73% to 3,234.03.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares climbed 0.4% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Water Works Company Inc AWK, up 1%, and Southwest Gas Holdings Inc SWX, up 1%.

In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 1.5%.

Top Headline

Lamb Weston Holdings Inc LW reported better-than-expected Q2 results and raised FY20 guidance.

Lamb Weston posted quarterly earnings of $0.95 per share on sales of $1.109 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.84 per share on sales of $964.88 million.

Equities Trading UP

Yuma Energy, Inc. YUMA shares shot up 50% to $4.59 amid crude oil which was up more than 3.5% to over the $63/barrel level. Traders have targeted this name previously given volatility in oil markets; the company has a float of just over 1 million shares, making it susceptible to increased volatility.

Shares of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. ACOR got a boost, shooting up 18% to $2.31 after Point72 reported a 9.8% passive stake in the company.

Cinedigm Corp. CIDM shares were also up, gaining 13% to $0.81 after the company signed a definitive stock purchase agreement to acquire a 29% stake in Starrise Media.

Equities Trading DOWN

Novan, Inc. NOVN shares tumbled 72% to $0.8612. Novan released top-line efficacy results from the Phase 3 B-SIMPLE program that evaluated SB206 for the treatment of molluscum contagiosum, which showed that statistical significance was not achieved for the primary endpoint in either B-SIMPLE1 or B-SIMPLE2.

Shares of DPW Holdings, Inc. DPW were down 33% to $1.6010 after rising 101.65% on Thursday.

Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. SES was down, falling 17% to $9.42 after rising 100.00% on Thursday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 4.2% to $63.75, while gold traded up 1.6% to $1,552.50.

Silver traded up 1% Friday to $18.225, while copper fell 2.2% to $2.7625.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.9%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 1.2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.8%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.6% while UK shares fell 0.5%.

Economics

The ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 47.2 in December, versus a reading of 48.1 in November.

Construction spending rose 0.6% in November, versus a revised 0.1% rise in the prior month.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin is set to speak at 11:05 a.m. ET.

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

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak at 1:15 p.m. ET.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans is set to speak at 1:15 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 3:30 p.m. ET.