Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges Over 300 Points; Avaya Shares Gain Following Deal With RingCentral

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 1.15% to 26503.40 while the NASDAQ rose 1.2% to 7966.81. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.16% to 2,944.45.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose 1.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Avaya Holdings Corp AVYA, up 28%, and RingCentral, Inc. RNG, up 26%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

On Thursday, Costco Wholesale Corporation COST reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.

Adjusted earnings came in at $2.69, beating estimates by 15 cents. Sales came in at $46.45 billion, missing estimates by $1.16 billion.


Equities Trading UP

Exela Technologies Inc XELA shares shot up 24% to $1.3684 after the company announced that the company along with General Dynamics was selected for a $2 billion program by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Shares of RingCentral Inc RNG surged 26% to $160.68 after the company would become an exclusive provider of UCaaS Solutions to Avaya in a strategic partnership.

Avaya Holdings Corp AVYA was up, rising 28% to $12.99 after the company announced a partnership with RingCentral, an enterprise cloud communications contact center. The partnership will introduce "Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral," which is a communications as a service (UCaaS) solution.

Equities Trading DOWN

Ovid Therapeutics Inc. OVID shares tumbled 26% to $2.4050 after the company announced a proposed concurrent public offering of common stock and preferred stock.

Shares of Arcimoto, Inc. FUV were down 18% to $2.30. Arcimoto priced 1.04 million share common stock offering at $2.25 per share.

HP Inc. HPQ was down, falling 10% to $16.57 after the company reported a broad restructuring plan. HP late Thursday said it expects to reduce its gross global headcount by approximately 7,000 to 9,000 employees and gave updated fiscal year 2020 guidance. The company adjusted EPS to $2.22-$2.32 versus the $2.24 estimate, and free cash flow at least $3 billion.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $52.87, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,510.40.

Silver traded down 0.6% Friday to $17.575, while copper rose 0.3% to $2.5615.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.73%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.67%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.75%. Meanwhile, the German DAX climbed 0.73%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.91% while UK shares rose 1.1%.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 136,000 new jobs in September. However, economists were expecting a gain of 140,000 jobs. U.S. unemployment rate fell to 3.5% last month.

The U.S. trade deficit increased 1.6% to $54.9 billion in August, the Commerce Department reported. However, economists were expecting a deficit of 54.5 billion.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 3 to 710 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Federal Reserve Board Vice-Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles is set to speak in Washington, D.C. at 4:00 p.m. ET.