Mid-Day Market Update: Amazon Drops On Downbeat Results; Digital River Shares Spike Higher

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Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.52 percent to 16,764.34 while the NASDAQ surged 0.39 percent to 4,470.29. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.46 percent to 1,959.85.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

In trading on Friday, telecommunications services shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.19 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TIM Participacoes S.A. (NYSE: TSU), up 3.3 percent, and China Mobile (NYSE: CHL), up 2.9 percent.

Energy services shares fell by 0.12 percent on Friday. Top losers in the sector included Basic Energy Services (NYSE: BAS), down 8.6 percent, and Vaalco Energy (NYSE: EGY), off 5.7 percent.

Top Headline

Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F) reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based company posted quarterly net income of $835 million or $0.21 per share, down from $1.27 billion, or $0.31 per share, in the year-ago period. Its pretax profit slipped to $1.18 billion, or $0.24 per share, versus $2.6 billion, or $0.45 per share.

Its revenue dropped to $34.9 million from $35.8 million. Analysts were expecting a profit of $0.19 per share on revenue of $33.11 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) shares shot up 47.58 percent to $25.65 after the company agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by Siris Capital Group for $26.00 per share in cash.

Shares of BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ: BJRI) got a boost, shooting up 24.37 percent to $41.29 on stronger-than-expected Q3 earnings.

KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) shares were also up, gaining 7.61 percent to $76.40 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results. The company announced a $16.50 per share special dividend and added 3.6 million shares to buyback.

Equities Trading DOWN

Shares of DryShips (NASDAQ: DRYS) were down 23.25 percent to $1.54 after the company priced 250 million shares of common stock at $1.40 per share.

Pandora Media (NYSE: P) shares tumbled 14.92 percent to $19.67 on quarterly results. The company reported upbeat quarterly results and raised its outlook for the fourth quarter and full year.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) was down, falling 6.96 percent to $291.38 after the company reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter results and issued a weak sales forecast for the holiday quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.90 percent to $81.35, while gold traded up 0.10 percent to $1,230.30.

Silver traded up 0.07 percent Friday to $17.17, while copper rose 0.20 percent to $3.05.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.33 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.13 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.31 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX slipped 0.66 percent and the French CAC 40 declined 0.69 percent while UK shares dropped 0.51 percent.

Economics

Sales of new homes gained at an annual rate of 467,000 in September, versus a revised 466,000 in August. However, economists were expecting sales rate to reach 470,000.

Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Eurozone Futures Commodities Econ #s Markets

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