Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises Over 50 Points; T2 Biosystems Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.25 percent to 22,259.70 while the NASDAQ rose 0.24 percent to 6,444.46. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.06 percent to 2,497.12.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the technology shares surged 0.43 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NVIDIA Corporation NVDA 6.32%, up 6 percent, and Sequans Communications SA ADR SQNS 6.61%, up 7 percent.

In trading on Friday, healthcare shares fell 0.26 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU 4.73%, down 5 percent, and Dr.Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (ADR) RDY 3.54% down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Oracle Corporation ORCL 7.67% reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter, but issued a weak profit forecast for the current quarter.

Oracle posted Q4 adjusted earnings of $0.62 per share on revenue of $9.19 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.60 per share on sales of $9.03 billion.

Oracle expects Q2 adjusted earnings of $0.64 to $0.68 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.68 per share. The company projects Q2 sales growth of 2 percent to 4 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. MRTX 135.79% shares shot up 151 percent to $11.92 following announcement of positive preliminary data from two ongoing clinical trials of its non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, candidate sitravatinib. The company said the data will be presented at the IASLC 2017 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology on Friday.

Shares of Abeona Therapeutics Inc ABEO 22.86% got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $16.65. RBC Capital initiated coverage on Abeona Therapeutics with an Outperform rating and $23 price target.

LightPath Technologies, Inc. LPTH 8.3% shares were also up, gaining 9 percent to $2.62. LightPath Technologies reported Q4 net income of $6.4 million, up from $331,000 in the year-ago quarter. Its revenue climbed 90 percent to $9.0 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

T2 Biosystems Inc TTOO 25.66% shares dropped 27 percent to $4.43. T2 Biosystems priced its 4.375 million share offering at $4 per share.

Shares of Oracle Corporation ORCL 7.67% were down 7 percent to $48.96. Oracle reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter, but issued a weak profit forecast for the current quarter.

First Internet Bancorp INBK 6.28% was down, falling around 7 percent to $29.02. First Internet Bancorp priced 1.65 million shares at $29 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.34 percent to $49.72 while gold traded down 0.26 percent to $1,325.80.

Silver traded down 0.53 percent Friday to $17.695, while copper fell 0.20 percent to $2.9515.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.28 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.42 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.23 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.17 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.22 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.10 percent.

Economics

U.S. retail sales declined 0.2 percent for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent growth.

The Empire State manufacturing index dropped to 24.40 in September, from August reading of 25.20. Economists were expecting a reading of 19.00.

U.S. industrial production declined 0.9 percent for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent growth.

U.S. business inventories rose 0.2 percent for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.20 percent gain.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped to 95.30 in September, versus prior reading of 96.80. Economists projected a reading of 95.10.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs dropped by 7 to 749 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.