Gold Moves Lower; Darden Restaurants Earnings Top Views

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling over 100 points on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.09% to 42,132.74 while the NASDAQ fell 0.72% to 19,404.99. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.37% to 5,958.76.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares jumped by 0.6% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, communication services stocks fell by 1.4%.

Top Headline

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:DRI) reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $2.98, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $2.97. Quarterly sales of $3.27 billion outpaced the analyst consensus estimate of $3.26 billion.

Darden Restaurants expects fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS between $10.50 and $10.70, below the $10.75 consensus estimate. The company projects total sales growth of 7% to 8% for the year.

Equities Trading UP
           

• Gorilla Technology Group Inc. (NASDAQ:GRRR) shares shot up 36% to $25.51 following a robust first-quarter earnings report that showed significant revenue growth and a return to profitability.
• Shares of Couchbase, Inc. (NASDAQ:BASE) got a boost, surging 30% to $24.69 as the company agreed to be acquired by Haveli Investments for $1.5 billion.
• Innovative Eyewear, Inc. (NASDAQ:LUCY) shares were also up, gaining 81% to $4.12 after the company announced a partnership with Smartech Retail Group to showcase the Reebok Powered by Lucyd collection and other brands at the new Smartech location in New York City.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) shares dropped 6% to $287.53 following the release of its third-quarter results.
• Shares of Moleculin Biotech, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBRX) were down 47% to $0.31 as the company announced a $5.9 million public offering.
• Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWBI) was down, falling 18% to $8.89 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter EPS and sales.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $75.02 while gold traded down 0.7% at $3,383.20.

Silver traded down 2.6% to $35.955 on Friday, while copper fell 0.9% to $4.8110.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.41%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1.01%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.11%, Germany's DAX 40 surged 1.31% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.58% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei falling 0.22%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 1.26%, China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.07% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 1.29%.

Economics

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index came in unchanged at -4.0 in June, versus market estimates of -1.

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