Mid-Afternoon Market Update: eHealth Climbs After Q3 Results; Flex Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.98 percent to 24,740.73 while the NASDAQ declined 1.83 percent to 7,184.74 . The S&P also fell, dropping 1.63 percent to 2,661.45 .

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the energy shares rose 0.14 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included GulfMark Offshore Inc GLF up 10 percent, and World Fuel Services Corp INT up 8 percent.

In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary shares tumbled 2.4 percent.

Top Headline

Alphabet Inc GOOG reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Earnings came in at $13.06, beating estimates by $2.60. Sales came in at $33.74 billion, missing estimates by $290 million.

Equities Trading UP

Yulong Eco-Materials Ltd YECO shares shot up 68 percent to $7.2563.

Shares of eHealth, Inc. EHTH got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $33.74 after the company reported upbeat Q3 results.

National Instruments Corporation NATI shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $49.86 after the company posted upbeat Q3 results. National Instruments named Eric Starkloff as President and COO.

Equities Trading DOWN

Flex Ltd. FLEX shares dropped 29 percent to $7.755 after the company reported mixed Q2 earnings and issued weak FY19 guidance.

Shares of Neuralstem, Inc. CUR were down 27 percent to $0.62 after reporting a $2.1 million registered direct offering.

Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc SGYP was down, falling around 65 percent to $0.49 after the company reported it will need to pay $38 million-$51 million in penalties if sales of TRULANCE do not meet the minimum amount required per its contract with CRG.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.27 percent to $67.51 while gold traded up 0.30 percent to $1,236.10.

Silver traded up 0.41 percent Friday to $14.69, while copper fell 0.51 to $2.7405.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.77 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.62 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.70 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.94 percent, and the French CAC 40 dipped 1.29 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.92 percent.

Economics

U.S. economy expanded at an annual pace of 3.5 percent in the third quarter, versus 4.2 percent pace in the previous three months. However, economists were expecting a 3.3 percent growth rate.

The final reading of University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 98.6 for October, versus 100.1 in the previous month and preliminary reading of 99.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 2 to 875 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.