Gold Falls Sharply; Geron Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 50 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.12% to 38,934.29 while the NASDAQ fell 0.06% to 17,163.20. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.06% to 5,356.10.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed by 0.8% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares dipped by 1.1%.

Top Headline

U.S. wholesale inventories increased by 0.1% month-over-month in April compared to the advance reading of a 0.2% increase and versus a revised 0.5% declined in the previous month.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Venus Concept Inc. VERO shares shot up 94% to $1.20 on continued upward momentum after the stock regained Nasdaq compliance.
• Shares of Asensus Surgical, Inc. ASXC got a boost, surging 40% to $0.3291 after the company announced it will be acquired by KARL STORZ for $0.35 per share in cash.
• Geron Corporation GERN shares were also up, gaining 21% to $4.7150. On Thursday, the FDA approved Geron's Rytelo (imetelstat) for adult patients with low-to intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) with transfusion-dependent anemia.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Biomea Fusion, Inc. BMEA shares dropped 63% to $4.22 after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) imposed a full clinical hold on its Phase I/II trials for BMF-219, a diabetes treatment.
• Shares of Barnes & Noble Education, Inc BNED were down 34% to $0.2144 after the company announced final results of rights offering.
• GameStop Corp. GME was down, falling 23% to $35.65 after the company released worse-than-expected first-quarter results before schedule and filed to sell up to 75 million shares.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $75.59 while gold traded down 2.8% at $2,324.40.

Silver traded down 5% to $29.795 on Friday, while copper fell 3.4% to $4.5210.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.07%, Germany's DAX declined 0.44% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.29%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.35%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.20%.

The Eurozone economy grew by 0.3% on quarter during the first three months of the year, compared to a 0.1% contraction in each of the prior two quarters. The Halifax House Price Index in the UK gained 1.5% year-over-year in May following a 1.1% increase in April.

French trade deficit increased to €7.6 billion in April, compared to market estimates of €5.4 billion. German trade surplus narrowed to EUR 22.1 billion in April versus a revised EUR 22.2 billion in March. Exports from Germany rose by 1.6% month-over-month to a 14-month high level of EUR 136.5 billion in April, while imports to Germany rose by 2.0% to a 10-month high of EUR 114.5 billion.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei falling 0.05%, China's Composite Index gaining 0.08%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dipping 0.59% and India's S&P BSE Sensex gaining 2.16%.

Foreign exchange reserves in Singapore rose to SGD 500.86 billion in May versus SGD 500.30 billion in the prior month, while China’s foreign exchange reserves climbed to $3.23 trillion in May from $3.2 trillion a month ago. China’s trade surplus increased to $82.62 billion in May from $65.55 billion in the year-ago period.

The index of leading economic indicators in Japan fell to 111.6 in April versus a revised 111.7 in the prior month, while index of coincident economic indicators rose to 115.2 in April from a revised 114.2 in the previous month. The Reserve Bank of India maintained its benchmark policy repo at 6.5% in June.

Economics

• U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 272,000 in May, a slowdown from April's 165,000 and far more than the 180,000 increase anticipated by Econoday.
• The unemployment rate inched higher from 3.9% to 4%. Average hourly earnings rose by 4.1% year-over-year, up from 3.9% in April and below the expected 3.9% increase.
• U.S. wholesale inventories increased by 0.1% month-over-month in April compared to the advance reading of a 0.2% increase and versus a revised 0.5% declined in the previous month.

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