Crude Oil Moves Higher; Paramount Global Shares Surge

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining over 200 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.55% to 37,984.19 while the NASDAQ fell 1.58% to 15,354.63. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.60% to 4,980.82.      .

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares climbed by 1.4% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 2.1%.

Top Headline

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs climbed by 5 to 511 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Ault Alliance, Inc. AULT shares shot up 24% to $0.3001 after the company announced that it received an investment of $44 million to date from Ault & Company under the November 2023 Securities Purchase Agreement.

Shares of Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. MCB got a boost, surging 18% to $39.00 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.

Paramount Global PARA shares were also up, gaining 13% to $12.35 following reports suggesting Sony is in talks with Apollo to join a bid for the company.

Equities Trading DOWN

Super Micro Computer, Inc. SMCI shares dropped 20% to $744.30. The company announced its third-quarter earnings date and did not provide preliminary estimates as it did with the second quarter.

Shares of Netflix, Inc NFLX were down 8% to $559.93. Netflix reported upbeat earnings and sales results for its first quarter. The company added 9.33 million paid net new subscribers in the first quarter to bring the company to a total of 269.60 million.

O-I Glass, Inc. OI was down, falling 6% to $14.56. B of A Securities analyst George Staphos downgraded O-I Glass from Buy to Neutral and lowered the price target from $21 to $16.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $83.22 while gold traded up 0.5% at $2,408.70.

Silver traded up 1.4% to $28.765 on Friday, while copper rose 1.4% to $4.4965.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 0.08%, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.24% while Spain's IBEX 35 Index declined 0.33% The German DAX fell 0.56% French CAC 40 fell 0.01% while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 0.12%.

Spain’s trade gap narrowed to EUR 2.4 billion in February from EUR 2.5 billion in the year-ago month, while Spain’s consumer confidence indicator climbed to 82.5 in March from 78.5 in February.

Producer prices in Germany fell by 2.9% year-over-year in March compared to a 4.1% decline in the prior month, while retail sales volumes in the UK came in flat for March.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 dipping 2.66%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.99%, China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.29% and India's S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.83%.

Foreign direct investment into China declined by 26.1% year-over-year to CNY 301.67 billion in the first quarter. The business confidence indicator in Hong Kong rose to +2 in the second quarter of from +1 in the prior three-month period. The core consumer price index in Japan increased 2.6% year-over-year in March from 2.8% in February.

Economics

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs climbed by 5 to 511 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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