Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.56 percent to 18,288.88 while the NASDAQ declined 0.50 percent to
5,312.90. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.46 percent to 2,167.22.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Friday afternoon, non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares slipped by just 0.02 percent.
In trading on Friday, energy shares tumbled by 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Tidewater Inc.
(NYSE: TDW), down 8 percent, and Hornbeck Offshore Services,
Inc. (NYSE: HOS), down 8 percent.
Top Headline
Finish Line Inc (NASDAQ: FINL) reported in-line
earnings for its second quarter, while sales exceeded expectations. The company also reiterated its full year EPS outlook that is
in line with predictions.
The company reported net income of $22.075 million, or $0.53 a share, down from $25.86 million, or $0.57 a share, in the
year-ago quarter. Street expected $0.57 a share.
Finnish Line delivered 5.4 percent growth in revenue from $483.15 million to $509.4 million and topped analysts' predictions of
$495.04 million. The company's comparable store sales witnessed 5.1 percent uptick.
Equities Trading UP
AC Immune Ltd (NASDAQ: ACIU) shares shot up 46
percent to $16.01. AC IMMUNE priced its IPO at $11 per share.
Shares of Imperva Inc (NYSE: IMPV) got a boost,
shooting up 21 percent to $52.67 helped by rumors about International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) might be interested in acquiring the company.
Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) shares were also up,
gaining 20 percent to $22.38 following a CNBC report the company is in discussions to sell itself to salesforce.com, inc.
(NYSE: CRM), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), among other unnamed technology companies.
Equities Trading DOWN
Enphase Energy Inc (NASDAQ: ENPH) shares dropped
28 percent to $1.20 after disclosing restructuring and cost reduction initiatives, which are expected to result in annualized
savings of approximately $20 million. The plan includes an 11 percent reduction of the company’s global workforce and the
elimination of some non-core projects, at a cost of $3 million. Management said it has plans for a public offering of common stock,
although the size is yet to be publicized.
Shares of Rave Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ: RAVE)
were down 18 percent to $3.16. RAVE Restaurant reported a Q4 loss of $2.3 million on revenue of $15.7 million.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co (NASDAQ: HMHC) was
down, falling around 12 percent to $13.15 as the company reported the resignation of its CEO Linda Zecher. The board named L.
Gordon Crovitz as interim CEO.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 4 percent to $44.48 while gold traded down 0.28 percent to $1,340.90.
Silver traded down 1.86 percent Friday to $19.73, while copper rose 0.32 percent to $2.20.
Eurozone
European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.72 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.25 percent,
while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index tumbled 1.11 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.4 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined
0.47 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.03 percent.
Economics
The preliminary reading of the Markit manufacturing PMI declined to 51.40 in September, versus a prior reading of 52.00.
Economists were expecting a reading of 51.90.
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