Stock market today, Jan. 31: U.S. stocks closed down Friday, wrapping up a rough January and the worst month in trading in over a year as several corporate earnings weighed on the market.
All three major indices closed in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.94%, or 150 points, at 15,699 points. The S&P 500 closed down 0.65%, or 11.6 points, at 1,783 points, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.47%, or 19 points, to close at 4,104 points.
Energy futures closed down today. Light sweet crude oil for March delivery closed $0.74 to settle at $97.49 per barrel. Heating oil for March delivery closed down 1.0% at $3.00 per gallon, and natural gas lost 1.36%, or $0.07, to close at $4.94 per million BTUs.
Several corporate earnings today triggered substantial stock losses.
Mattel (Nasdaq: MAT) closed down 12% at $37.84 after it reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.07 per share, well below the Street view of $1.20 per share. Sales were $2.11 billion, off the Street view of $2.36 billion and off 6% from last year, with North American gross sales down 10% and international sales fairly flat from last year.
Mattel's earnings also weighed on Hasbro (Nasdaq: HAS), which closed down 3.4% at $49.12. And Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) shares closed down 11% for the Friday session after it reported fourth-quarter sales were up 20% to $25.59 billion, under the Street view of $26.0 billion. Its net income was also up, to $0.51 per share, but short of expectations for $0.69 per share.
For the first quarter, Amazon expects sales of $18.2 billion to $19.9 billion, a range that includes the analyst estimate for $19.6 billion.
While the overall healthcare sector was slightly lower today, a few companies are standing out with stock gains...
Among them, Cepheid (Nasdaq: CPHD) closed up 12% at $52.86.
The molecular diagnostics company's fourth-quarter results topped analyst expectations. It reported net income of $0.03 per share for the quarter, versus the Street view of $0.02. Revenue rose 22% year over year to $113.3 million.
For fiscal 2014, Cepheid expects earnings of $0.24 per share to $0.29 per share, which lags behind the analyst consensus of $0.09 per share. However, its full-year projections for revenue increasing 11% to 15% up to $461 million were in line with expectations.
In other major gainers today, Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) closed up 24%, rallying hard on several major news bits. Firstly, the company is taking a few significant cost-cutting measures, including cutting 314 employees, or about 15% of its workforce.
And Zynga Inc. said it will buy NaturalMotion, a major mobile game and technology developer, for about $527 million in cash and equity.
Zynga late Thursday reported first-quarter sales of $176 million, which is below the Street view of $186 million. But its net loss of $0.03 per shares was one cent better than expected.
Finally, Manitowoc Company Inc. (NYSE: MTW) shares also made strides today. The stock closed up 15%, marking a five-year high at $29.39, after it reported mixed fourth-quarter results. It reported better-than-expected earnings and revenues for the fiscal 2013 year.
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