Nasdaq Down Over 1%; Procter & Gamble Raises Profit Forecast

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling over 150 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.43% to 37,938.78 while the NASDAQ fell 1.20% to 15,414.32. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.43% to 4,989.44       .

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 1.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, communication services shares fell by1.2%.

Top Headline

Procter & Gamble Co PG fell around 8% during Friday's session following first-quarter results.

Procter & Gamble reported third-quarter FY24 sales growth of 1% year-on-year to $20.195 billion, missing the analyst consensus estimate of $20.408 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.52 beat the consensus estimate of $1.41.

P&G maintained its guidance range for FY24 organic sales growth of 4%-5% and all-in sales growth of 2%-4%. P&G raised its FY24 EPS growth outlook from -1% to inline to a range of 1% to 2% versus FY23 EPS of $5.90.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Ault Alliance, Inc. AULT shares shot up 25% to $0.3036 after the company announced that it received an investment of $44 million to date from Ault & Company under the November 2023 Securities Purchase Agreement.

Shares of Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. MCB got a boost, surging 17% to $38.69 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.

Paramount Global PARA shares were also up, gaining 10% to $12.03 following reports suggesting Sony is in talks with Apollo to join a bid for the company.

Equities Trading DOWN

Super Micro Computer, Inc. SMCI shares dropped 13% to $803.96. The company announced its third-quarter earnings date and did not provide preliminary estimates as it did with the second quarter.

Shares of Netflix, Inc NFLX were down 7% to $568.27. Netflix reported upbeat earnings and sales results for its first quarter. The company added 9.33 million paid net new subscribers in the first quarter to bring the company to a total of 269.60 million.

O-I Glass, Inc. OI was down, falling 6% to $14.51. B of A Securities analyst George Staphos downgraded O-I Glass from Buy to Neutral and lowered the price target from $21 to $16.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $83.15 while gold traded up 0.1% at $2,401.40.

Silver traded up 0.4% to $28.49 on Friday, while copper rose 1.3% to $4.4940.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 0.13%, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.01% while Spain's IBEX 35 Index declined 0.34% The German DAX fell 0.57% French CAC 40 rose 0.06% while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 0.04%.

Spain’s trade gap narrowed to EUR 2.4 billion in February from EUR 2.5 billion in the year-ago month, while Spain’s consumer confidence indicator climbed to 82.5 in March from 78.5 in February.

Producer prices in Germany fell by 2.9% year-over-year in March compared to a 4.1% decline in the prior month, while retail sales volumes in the UK came in flat for March.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 dipping 2.66%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.99%, China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.29% and India's S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.83%.

Foreign direct investment into China declined by 26.1% year-over-year to CNY 301.67 billion in the first quarter. The business confidence indicator in Hong Kong rose to +2 in the second quarter of from +1 in the prior three-month period. The core consumer price index in Japan increased 2.6% year-over-year in March from 2.8% in February.

Economics

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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