Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 200 Points; Cirrus Logic Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.60% to 33,856.90 while the NASDAQ fell 0.85% to 13,963.27. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.73% to 4,180.66.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,289,790 cases with around 575,190 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 18,762,970 cases and 208,330 deaths, while Brazil reported over 14,590,670 COVID-19 cases with 401,180 deaths. In total, there were at least 150,589,470 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,167,830 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed by 0.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Braemar Hotels & Resorts, Inc. BHR, up 3%, and Realogy Holdings Corp. RLGY, up 2%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 2.2%.

Top Headline

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter and also issued upbeat Q2 sales guidance.

Amazon reported first-quarter revenue of $108.5 billion, beating the $104.5-billion street estimate. Revenue increased 44% year-over-year. Earnings per share were $15.79, beating an estimate of $9.54.

Equities Trading UP

Image Sensing Systems, Inc. ISNS shares shot up 20% to $5.52 after the company announced it initiated a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, authorized a 220,000 share buyback and announced the implementation of a holding company reorganization.

Shares of CryoLife, Inc. CRY got a boost, shooting 20% to $28.15 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results. Needham maintained Cryolife with a Buy and raised the price target from $33 to $38.

Mesoblast Limited MESO shares were also up, gaining 11% to $8.00 after the company announced 60-day results from the randomized controlled trial of remestemcel-L in COVID-19 patients with moderate/severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which had been halted after the third interim analysis, as previously announced.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

MicroVision, Inc. MVIS shares tumbled 19% to $14.53 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results.

Shares of Cirrus Logic, Inc. CRUS were down 15% to $72.93 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results and issued weak Q1 sales guidance.

NeoPhotonics Corporation NPTN was down, falling 18% to $9.23 after the company issued weak forecast for the second quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.5% to $63.36, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,769.60.

Silver traded down 0.5% Friday to $25.965 while copper fell 0.7% to $4.4540.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.31%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.09% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.12%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.53% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.12% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dropped 0.56%.

Eurozone unemployment rate fell to 8.1% in March from 8.2% in the previous month, while the region’s economy contracted 0.6%on quarter in January-March 2021. German GDP shrank 1.7% on quarter during the three months to March 2021, while French economy grew 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter.

Spain's current account deficit increased to EUR 1.71 billion in February from EUR 1.37 billion in the year-ago month. Retail sales in Spain climbed 14.9% year-over-year in March, while GDP shrank 0.5%on quarter during the three months to March 2021.

Economics

The employment cost index increased 0.9% on quarter during the three months to March 2021.

US personal income surged 21.1% month-over-month in March, while personal spending rose 4.2%.

The Chicago PMI rose 5.8 points to a reading of 72.1 in April.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index was revised higher to 88.3 in April from a preliminary level of 86.5.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 1 to 342 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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

Check out the full economic calendar here