Mid-Afternoon Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Higher; Endo International Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.36 percent to 17,724.30 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.17 percent to 4,725.34. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.24 percent to 2,055.59. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Friday, the basic materials sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Top gainers in the sector included LSB Industries, Inc. LXU, Ferro Corporation FOE, and Gibraltar Industries Inc ROCK. In trading on Friday, healthcare shares fell by 0.62 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Akorn, Inc. AKRX, down 17 percent, and BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc. BDSI, down 14 percent. Top Headline Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp CTSH reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, but issued a weak guidance for the current quarter. Excluding special items, Cognizant Technology said that its earnings would have witnessed 12.7 percent growth to $0.80 per share from $0.71 per share for the period under review. That meant its earnings topped by a penny. The company's top line increased 10 percent to $3.2 billion from $2.91 billion in the previous year quarter. However, that came modestly below the Street analysts' estimations of $3.23 billion. Going forward, the company expects adjusted earnings to be $0.80-$0.82 a share on revenue of $3.34-$3.4 billion for the second quarter. The guidance was below the Street expectations of $0.84 a share on revenue of $3.41 billion. Equities Trading UP Herbalife Ltd. HLF shares shot up 13 percent to $65.73. Herbalife reported better-than-expected Q1 results and raised its full-year EPS guidance. The company also reminded investors that, as previously disclosed, it is in discussions with the FTC regarding its advertising and marketing practices. Shares of Sierra Wireless, Inc. (USA) SWIR got a boost, shooting up 28 percent to $18.71 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results. Yelp Inc YELP shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $26.12 as the company reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter and raised its revenue forecast for the year. Equities Trading DOWN Square Inc SQ shares dropped 19 percent to $10.58. Square reported a loss of $(0.29) per share and sales of $379 million. Wedbush downgraded Square from Neutral to Underperform. Shares of Endo International plc ENDP were down 40 percent to $15.94. Endo reported upbeat quarterly earnings, but lowered its full-year guidance. RBC Capital downgraded Endo from Outperform to Sector Perform. Imperva Inc IMPV was down, falling around 25 percent to $33.92. Imperva reported a narrower-than-expected loss for its first quarter, but issued a weak sales guidance for the current quarter. Needham downgraded Imperva from Buy to Hold. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 0.59 percent to $44.58 while gold traded up 1.61 percent to $1,292.80. Silver traded up 1.11 percent Friday to $17.52, while copper fell 0.09 percent to $2.15. Eurozone European shares closed lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 dropped 0.36 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.15 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.45 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.18 percent, and the French CAC 40 dipped 0.42 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.14 percent. Economics The U.S. economy added 160,000 new jobs in April, while the unemployment rate remained flat at 5 percent. However, economists were expecting a gain of 202,000 nonfarm jobs in the month.