US Stocks Edge Higher; Applied Materials Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded slightly higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 10 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.02% to 39,877.48 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 16,699.04. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.03% to 5,298.61                                         .

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares rose by 0.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

Applied Materials Inc AMAT reported better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter on Thursday.

Applied Materials said second-quarter revenue was flat on a year-over-year basis. The chip equipment company reported total revenue of $6.646 billion which beat the consensus estimate of $6.537 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. Applied Materials reported adjusted earnings of $2.09 per share, beating analyst estimates of $1.99 per share.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Fangdd Network Group Ltd. DUO shares shot up 312% to $1.69. FangDD filed 2023 annual report on Form 20-F.
• Shares of Akanda Corp. AKAN got a boost, surging 164% to $0.3495 after jumping around 27% on Thursday.
• Crown ElectroKinetics Corp CRKN shares were also up, gaining 131% to $0.5574. The stock has seen interest from retail investors on social media.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Heart Test Laboratories, Inc. HSCS shares dropped 34% to $7.48.
• Shares of AmpliTech Group, Inc. AMPG were down 34% to $1.44.
• GameStop Corp GME was down, falling 23% to $21.11. The video game retailer released preliminary first-quarter results, anticipating revenue between $0.872 billion and $0.892 billion. This represents a significant decline from the prior year's quarter of $1.237 billion. Additionally, GameStop expects a loss of $27 million to $37 million, narrower than the $50.5 million loss reported a year ago.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $79.30 while gold traded up 0.8% at $2,406.80.

Silver traded up 2.9% to $30.73 on Friday, while copper rose 3.4% to $5.0420.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 slipped 0.2%, Germany's DAX fell 0.2% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.4%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.2%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone was confirmed at 2.4% in April, the same as in the previous month. The unemployment rate in France came in unchanged at 7.5% for the first quarter.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei falling 0.34%, China's Composite Index climbing 1.01%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.91% and India's S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.3%.

China’s retail sales climbed by 2.3% year-over-year, compared to a 3.1% surge in the previous period, while unemployment rate fell to 5.0% in April. China’s industrial production rose by 6.7% year-over-year in April, topping market expectations of 5.5%, while new home prices fell by 3.1% year-over-year in April.

Hong Kong's GDP increased by 2.7% year-over-year in the first quarter, easing from the 4.3% growth recorded in the prior period.

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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