Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Amazon Reports Upbeat Q1 Results

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.57% to 33,866.41 while the NASDAQ fell 0.25% to 14,047.14. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.51% to 4,190.01.

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


Consumer discretionary shares climbed by 0.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Tarena International, Inc. TEDU, up 12%, and Laureate Education, Inc. LAUR, up 12%.


In trading on Friday, communication services shares fell 1%.


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 27% to $5.83 after the company announced it initiated a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, authorized a 220K share buyback and announced the implementation of a holding company reorganization.


Shares of CryoLife, Inc. CRY got a boost, shooting 16% to $27.36 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results. Needham maintained Cryolife with a Buy and raised the price target from $33 to $38.


Remark Holdings, Inc. MARK shares were also up, gaining 15% to $2.34.

Check out these big movers of the day


Equities Trading DOWN

MicroVision, Inc. MVIS shares tumbled 16% to $15.05 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results.

Shares of Cirrus Logic, Inc. CRUS were down 17% to $71.94 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results and issued weak Q1 sales guidance.

JMP Group LLC JMP was down, falling 15% to $5.35 after the company reported results for its first quarter.


Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.8% to $63.85, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,770.40.


Silver traded down 0.3% Friday to $25.985 while copper rose 0.5% to $4.5080.


Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.1%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.3% London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dropped 0.7%.

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 Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.


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

Check out the full economic calendar here

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