Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.32 percent to 25,460.03 while the NASDAQ declined 0.40 percent to
7,455.54. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.07 percent to 2,770.61.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
On Friday, the consumer staples shares climbed by 2.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Procter &
Gamble Co (NYSE: PG) up 8 percent, and
Nature's Sunshine Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: NATR) up 5 percent.
In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary shares slipped 0.9 percent.
Top Headline
Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE: PG) reported
upbeat earnings for its first quarter.
P&G posted quarterly earnings of $1.12 per share on revenue of $16.69 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of
$1.10 per share on sales of $16.51 billion. P&G reaffirmed its FY19 organic sales growth guidance of 2 percent to 3 percent
year over year.
Equities Trading UP
Skechers U.S.A., Inc. (NYSE: SKX) shares
shot up 14 percent to $29.77 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter and issued a strong outlook for the
fourth quarter.
Shares of The9 Limited (NASDAQ: NCTY)
got a boost, shooting up 114 percent to $3.38. Jie Qin reported a 7.4 percent stake in The9 Ltd as of Sept 4.
Planet Green Holdings Corp. (NYSE: PLAG)
shares were also up, gaining 331 percent to $11.51. Planet Green Form 4 filings from Thursday afternoon showed open market
purchases of 1.176 million shares of common stock by 2 executives, CEO, Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer.
Equities Trading DOWN
ServiceSource International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SREV) shares dropped 47 percent to $1.38 after the company lowered its sales
forecast and disclosed that its CFO Robert Pinkerton will leave the company.
Shares of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACK) were down 28 percent to $3.69. Merrimack, which focuses on therapies for
biomarker-defined cancer, said it has terminated a study dubbed SHERLOC, which evaluated its MM-121 in combination with docetaxel
in patients with heregulin-positive non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC. Docetaxel is a chemotherapy medication used to treat
several cancers, including breast cancer, head and neck cancer, prostate cancer and NSCLC. The decision was made after the
Independent Data Safety Monitoring Board that evaluated the data from the Phase 2 trial found that the addition of MM-121 to
docetaxel did not improve progression-free survival over docetaxel alone in the patient population.
Bank Ozk (NASDAQ: OZK) was down, falling
around 28 percent to $25.20 after the company reported weak earnings for its third quarter.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.64 percent to $69.09 while gold traded down 0.03 percent to $1,229.70.
Silver traded up 0.28 percent Friday to $14.645, while copper rose 1.22 to $2.78.
Eurozone
European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.12 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.03
percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.04 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.31 percent, and the French CAC 40
declined 0.63 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.32 percent.
Economics
U.S. existing home sales declined 3.4 percent at an annual rate of 5.15 million for September. However, economists were
expecting a 5.34 million rate.
The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 4 to 873 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.
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