The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.36%) notched an impressive gain early on Friday, adding more than 70 points just before 11:30 a.m. EST and hitting a new intraday high. A few stocks were outperforming, including Dow component Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), as well as BlackBerry (BBRY +2.60%) and Red Hat (RHT +0.00%).
GDP surges in the third quarter
The Dow Jones' gain may have been largely fueled by a solid gross domestic product report. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. GDP rose 4.1% in the third quarter, more than the 3.6% economists had anticipated. GDP is widely regarded as one of the best measures of overall economic activity, and a 4.1% expansion indicates that the economy grew strongly in the third quarter.
Cisco continues impressive week
Dow component Cisco was outperforming its index early on Friday, rising more than 0.60% early in the session. There was no specific news to account for Cisco's rally, but the gain does cap off what has been a fairly solid week for the networking specialist, which is now up nearly 5% in the last five days.
Some positive news from Oracle may have helped Cisco shareholders. Oracle reported a solid quarter earlier this week, suggesting that the enterprise technology market is doing well.
BlackBerry up despite losing billions
BlackBerry shares were up more than 16% early on Friday following the company's earnings report. In the third quarter, BlackBerry lost a whopping $4.4 billion, far worse than analysts had expected.
However, BlackBerry investors seemed to be ignoring those results, instead looking to the future. The smartphone maker announced that it would collaborate with Chinese OEM Foxconn on a number of low-end BlackBerry devices targeted at emerging markets. While its high-end BB10 handsets have been a flop in the U.S. and other developed economies, cheaper handsets could attract emerging market consumers, many of whom are still underserved. Meanwhile, BlackBerry is doubling down on its efforts at courting enterprise customers with its services.
Red Hat rallies in wake of impressive quarter
As good as BlackBerry's rally was on Friday, Red Hat's was better as the stock jumped more than 18%. The software company on Thursday posted third-quarter results that beat analysts' expectations and raised its guidance for future performance.
Red Hat reported earnings of $0.42 per share on revenue of $396.5 million, better than the $0.35 and $383.11 million analysts had anticipated. In the fourth quarter, Red Hat expects to earn $0.36-0.38 per share on revenue of $397 million-$400 million. Red Hat also raised its total revenue guidance for the fiscal year.
Red Hat's subscription revenue was up 17% year over year, and management said the company was benefiting from enterprise shift toward hybrid cloud technologies.
