Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 2.5%; Werner Enterprises Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.06 percent to 20,590.36 while the NASDAQ declined 0.06 percent to 5,913.02. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.14 percent to 2,352.52.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the utilities sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Connecticut Water Service Inc CTWS and SJW Group SJW.

In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.50 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Internet Gold Golden Lines Ltd IGLD, down 3 percent, and Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, down 2.5 percent.

Top Headline

General Electric Company GE reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Friday.

GE posted adjusted earnings of $0.21 per share in the quarter on revenue of $27.7 billion; Analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.17 per share on revenue of $26.4 billion.

Equities Trading UP

China Digital TV Holding Co., Ltd.(ADR) STV shares shot up 33 percent to $1.70. China Digital TV declared a special cash dividend of US$1.50 per ordinary share.

Shares of CAI International Inc CAI got a boost, shooting up 22 percent to $18.87 after the company reported upbeat quarterly profit.

Werner Enterprises, Inc. WERN shares were also up, gaining 8 percent to $26.99 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Equities Trading DOWN

XBiotech Inc XBIT shares dropped 41 percent to $10.12 after the company disclosed that the EMA rendered negative trend vote related to MAA for its candidate antibody for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Shares of Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp ADMP were down around 16 percent to $3.67. Adamis Pharmaceuticals priced its 4.28 million offering at $3.50 per share.

Onconova Therapeutics Inc ONTX was down, falling around 16 percent to $2.10. Onconova Therapeutics priced its 2.47 million share offering at $2.10 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.54 percent to $49.42 while gold traded up 0.24 percent to $1,286.90.

Silver traded down 0.79 percent Friday to $17.955, while copper fell 0.10 percent to $2.5545.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.02 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.04 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.54 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.24 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.37 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.05 percent.

Economics

The flash Markit PMI dropped to a reading of 52.8 in April, versus a prior reading of 53.3.

Existing home sales rose 4.4 percent to an annual rate of 5.71 million for March. Economists were expecting a 5.60 million rate.