Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.71% to 33,820.14 while the NASDAQ fell 0.44% to 14,020.26. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.64% to 4,184.44.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,289,790 cases with around 575,190 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 18,762,970 cases and 208,330 deaths, while Brazil reported over 14,590,670 COVID-19 cases with 401,180 deaths. In total, there were at least 150,589,470 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,167,830 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Consumer discretionary shares climbed by 0.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Remark Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARK), up 16%, and Laureate Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: LAUR), up 14%.
In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 2%.
Top Headline
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter and also issued upbeat Q2 sales guidance.
Amazon reported first-quarter revenue of $108.5 billion, beating the $104.5-billion street estimate. Revenue increased 44% year-over-year. Earnings per share were $15.79, beating an estimate of $9.54.
Equities Trading UP
Image Sensing Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISNS) shares shot up 22% to $5.61 after the company announced it initiated a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, authorized a 220,000 share buyback and announced the implementation of a holding company reorganization.
Shares of CryoLife, Inc. (NYSE: CRY) got a boost, shooting 17% to $27.57 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results. Needham maintained Cryolife with a Buy and raised the price target from $33 to $38.
Mesoblast Limited (NASDAQ: MESO) shares were also up, gaining 14% to $8.23 after the company announced 60-day results from the randomized controlled trial of remestemcel-L in COVID-19 patients with moderate/severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which had been halted after the third interim analysis, as previously announced.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS) shares tumbled 17% to $14.97 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results.
Shares of Cirrus Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) were down 17% to $71.30 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results and issued weak Q1 sales guidance.
NeoPhotonics Corporation (NASDAQ: NPTN) was down, falling 17% to $9.26 after the company issued weak forecast for the second quarter.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 2.5% to $63.40, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,771.20.
Silver traded up 0.4% Friday to $26.195 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.4825.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.03%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.18% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.3%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.18% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dropped 0.38%.
Eurozone unemployment rate fell to 8.1% in March from 8.2% in the previous month, while the region’s economy contracted 0.6%on quarter in January-March 2021. German GDP shrank 1.7% on quarter during the three months to March 2021, while French economy grew 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter.
Spain’s current account deficit increased to EUR 1.71 billion in February from EUR 1.37 billion in the year-ago month. Retail sales in Spain climbed 14.9% year-over-year in March, while GDP shrank 0.5%on quarter during the three months to March 2021.
Economics
The employment cost index increased 0.9% on quarter during the three months to March 2021.
US personal income surged 21.1% month-over-month in March, while personal spending rose 4.2%.
The Chicago PMI rose 5.8 points to a reading of 72.1 in April.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index was revised higher to 88.3 in April from a preliminary level of 86.5.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Data on farm prices for March will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
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