Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles More Than 500 Points; World Wrestling Entertainment Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 1.79% to 28343.67 while the NASDAQ fell 1.18% to 9188.76. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.5% to 3,234.34.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed 1.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Adient plc ADNT, up 32%, and Workhorse Group Inc. WKHS, up 13%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 3.5%.

Top Headline

Caterpillar Inc. CAT reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views. The company also issued weak earnings forecast for 2020.

Caterpillar reported quarterly earnings of $2.63 per share on Friday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.37. The company reported quarterly sales of $13.1 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $13.41 billion.

Caterpillar sees 2020 EPS of $8.50-$10 versus the $10.63 estimate.


Equities Trading UP

Navistar International Corporation NAV shares shot up 53% to $36.75. Volkswagen's TRATON SE truck unit late Thursday offered $2.9 billion, or $35 a share in cash, for the 83% of Navistar International it does not already own.

Shares of Vaxart, Inc. VXRT got a boost, shooting up 54% to $1.1199 after the company announced the initiation of a coronavirus vaccine program.

Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNDX shares were also up, gaining 31% to $8.75. Syndax reported a $35 million common stock offering and $30 million term sheet for loan with Hercules Capital.

Equities Trading DOWN

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. WWE shares tumbled 23% to $48.28 after the company announced the Co-Presidents, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, will depart the company. WWE also downgraded its expectations for adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization to $180 million, from an earlier forecast of $190 million.

Shares of Intec Pharma Ltd. NTEC were down 35% to $0.2998 after the company priced its 16.25 million share public offering at $0.40 per share.

Beazer Homes USA, Inc. BZH was down, falling 20% to $13.75 after reporting Q1 results. Wedbush downgraded Beazer Homes USA from Outperform to Neutral.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 2.1% to $51.07, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,590.40.

Silver traded up 0.2% Friday to $18.03, while copper fell 0.3% to $2.516.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 1.07%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.16%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 2.29% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.33%, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.11% while UK shares fell 1.3%.

Economics

U.S. personal spending increased 0.3% in December, versus a 0.4% growth in November. Personal income rose 0.2% in December, versus a revised 0.4% gain in November.

The employment cost index rose 0.7% for the fourth quarter.

The Chicago PMI fell 5.3 points to a reading of 42.9 in January.

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index rose to 99.8 in January, versus a preliminary reading of 99.1 and compared to 99.3 in December.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 1 to 675 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Data on farm prices for December will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.