Wall Street Mixed Friday Ahead of Fewer Jobs

U.S. stock markets were trading mixed on Friday morning, despite new solid labor market data. The July U.S. unemployment rate was at 3.9%, and 157,000 new jobs were created last month.

Shares of Symantec Corp. (SYMC, Financial) fell on Friday morning more than 13% after the company posted first-quarter earnings. The company recorded earnings per share of 34 cents on revenue of $1.17 billion. The company beats earnings estimates by 1 cent and revenue estimates by $20 million.

Greg Clark, Symantec's CEO, said, “Following a successful fiscal year 2018 in our Enterprise Security segment, first quarter fiscal year 2019 enterprise implied billings were below expectations due to longer than expected sales cycles for large, multi-product platform sales.”

GAAP operating margin of 0.1% and non-GAAP operating margin were 28.1%, lower than the 30.7% in the same trimester of 2017.

Moreover, the board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 7.5 cents per common share to be paid on Sept. 12.

Now, the company expects non-GAAP earnings per share in fiscal 2019 to be in the range of $1.47 to $1.57, lower than the previous outlook of $1.50 to $1.65. Revenue is expected to be between $4.67 billion and $4.79 billion, also lower than previous estimation of $4.76 billion to 4.9 billion. For the second quarter, the company expects non-GAAP earnings per share of 31 cents to 35 cents and non-GAAP revenue of $1.13 billion to $1.16 billion.

Gainers

• DISH Network Corp. (DISH, Financial)

• Fluor Corp. (FLR, Financial)

• Campbell Soup Co. (CPB, Financial)

• L Brands Inc. (LB, Financial)

Losers

• Symantec Corp. (SYMC, Financial)

• Western Union Co. (WU, Financial)

• CBS Corp. (CBS, Financial)

• Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI, Financial)

Global markets

The main European stock markets traded in the green.The U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.82%, France's CAC 40 gained 0.07%, Germany's Dax jumped 0.35% and Spain's Ibex 35 rose 0.23%.

In Asia, markets closed mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.06%, India’s BSE Sensex jumped 1.05%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.14% and China's Shanghai Composite retreated 1.0%.

Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.