Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Cray Jumps Following Acquisition News; Pinterest Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.15 percent to 25,900.42 while the NASDAQ fell 0.33 percent to 7,871.75. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03 percent to 2,875.38.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 0.4 percent on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included AquaVenture Holdings Limited WAAS, up 5 percent, and Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. CWCO, up 3 percent.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 0.7 percent.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported downbeat earnings for its second quarter and lowered its FY19 guidance

Deere & Company reported net income of $1.135 billion for the quarter, or $3.52 per share, compared with net income of $1.208 billion, or $3.67 per share, for the same period last year. Global net sales and revenues increased 6 percent, to $11.342 billion, for the second quarter. Wall Street analysts expected earnings of $3.61 per share on sales of $10.18 billion.

Deere expects equipment sales are projected to increase by about 5 percent for fiscal 2019 compared with 2018. The company cut 2019 net income guidance from $3.6 billion to $3.3 billion and cut 2019 sales growth guidance from 7 percent to 5 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Cray Inc. CRAY shares shot up 19 percent to $35.46 after Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co HPE announced plans to acquire Cray in a transaction valued at approximately $1.3 billion.

Shares of Fastly, Inc. FSLY got a boost, shooting up 51 percent to $24.21. Fastly priced its 11.25 million share IPO at $16 per share.

Luckin Coffee Inc. LK shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $20.90 after pricing its IPO at $17 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pinterest, Inc. PINS shares tumbled 11 percent to $27.56 after the company reported wider-than-expected loss in its first quarterly report since its IPOPinterest said it projects full-year revenue of $1.055 billion to $1.08 billion.

Shares of Baidu, Inc. BIDU were down 16 percent to $129.11 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS. The company also issued Q2 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

BioPharmX Corporation BPMX was down, falling 18 percent to $1.03 after the company registered an $8.5 million common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1 percent to $62.78, while gold traded down 0.8 percent to $1,275.70.

Silver traded down 1 percent Friday to $14.395, while copper fell 0.4 percent to $2.7375.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.36 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.26 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.22 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.58 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.18 percent while UK shares dropped 0.07 percent.

Economics

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment increased to 102.4 in May, versus April’s reading of 97.2. However, economists were projecting a reading of 97.1.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.2 percent for April.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 3 to 802 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.