Mid-Day Market Update: Weight Watchers Surges Following Earnings Beat; Electronics For Imaging Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.09 percent to 22,046.44 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.21 percent to 6,353.73. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16 percent to 2,476.08.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Friday, the financial sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Encore Capital Group, Inc. ECPG and Gain Capital Holdings Inc GCAP.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.51 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Genie Energy Ltd GNE, down 3 percent, and SCANA Corporation SCG, down 3 percent.

Top Headline

CIGNA Corporation CI reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

CIGNA reported Q2 adjusted earnings of $2.91 per share, on sales of $10.3 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $2.48 on revenue of $10.27 billion.

Cigna raised its FY17 adjusted earnings outlook to $9.75 to $10.05 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Yelp Inc YELP shares shot up 27 percent to $39.72 after the company reported upbeat Q2 results and disclosed a partnership with GrubHub Inc GRUB. Yelp announced plans to sell its Eat24 business.

Shares of Weight Watchers International, Inc. WTW got a boost, shooting up 26 percent to $41.76 after the company posted stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Arista Networks Inc ANET shares were also up, gaining 20 percent to $172.30 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and issued a strong sales forecast for the third quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Electronics For Imaging, Inc. EFII shares dropped 39 percent to $28.99. Electronics For Imaging disclosed that it has postponed Q2 release due to accounting issues related to revenue recognition. Morgan Stanley downgraded Electronics for Imaging from Equal-Weight to Underweight.

Shares of Autobytel Inc. ABTL were down 29 percent to $7.70 as the company posted downbeat Q2 results and lowered its FY17 outlook. Barrington Research downgraded Autobytel from Outperform to Market Perform.

Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Inc NGVC was down, falling around 34 percent to $5.60 as the company posted downbeat quarterly results and lowered its FY17 earnings guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.27 percent to $49.16 while gold traded down 0.88 percent to $1,263.20.

Silver traded down 2.32 percent Friday to $16.245, while copper fell 0.17 percent to $2.873.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.94 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.14 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.66 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 1.23 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.48 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.46 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 209,000 new jobs in July, while unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 percent. Economists projected a gain of 183,000 jobs for July.
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U.S. trade deficit declined 5.9 percent to $43.6 billion in June, compared to $46.4 billion in May. However, economists were expecting a $44 billion deficit. Exports increased 1.2 percent to $194.4 billion, while imports declined 0.2 percent to $238 billion.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.