Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Rises Over 100 Points; Recro Pharma Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.69% to 31,184.21 while the NASDAQ rose 0.95% to 13,243.64. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.21% to 3,837.28.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 28,413,630 cases with around 508,310 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,063,490 confirmed cases and 156,820 deaths, while Brazil reported over 10,390,460 COVID-19 cases with 251,490 deaths. In total, there were at least 113,086,220 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,509,560 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose 1.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Intrusion Inc. INTZ, up 16%, and LivePerson, Inc. LPSN, up 9%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares dipped by 3.5%.

Top Headline

Foot Locker, Inc. FL reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.

Foot Locker reported quarterly earnings of $1.55 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.35 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $2.19 billion, versus expectations of $2.29 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc. LIXT shares shot up 39% to $5.22. Lixte Biotech recently said it will present its anti-cancer therapy enhancer at HC Wainwright Global Life Sciences Conference being held March 9-10, 2021.

Shares of Sensus Healthcare, Inc. SRTS got a boost, shooting 27% to $4.8550 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results. Roth Capital maintained Sensus Healthcare with a Buy and raised the price target from $4 to $6.

Just Energy Group Inc. JE shares were also up, gaining 38% to $4.7797 after the company reported Q3 results.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Tengasco, Inc. TGC shares tumbled 32% to $2.50. Tengasco and Riley Exploration - Permian, LLC disclosed a reverse stock split.

Shares of Tricida, Inc. TCDA were down 32% to $5.00 after the company posted a wider Q4 loss. The company also said it has received an Appeal Denied Letter (ADL) from the Office of New Drugs (OND) of the FDA in response to the company's Formal Dispute Resolution Request (FDRR) submitted in December.

Recro Pharma, Inc. REPH was down, falling 27% to $3.56 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.9% to $62.35, while gold traded down 2.4% to $1,757.50.

Silver traded down 3.8% Friday to $26.59 while copper fell 2.7% to $4.1485.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.48%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.1% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.57%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 1.3%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 2.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.97%.

French gross domestic product contracted 1.4% on quarter during the October-December period, while import prices in Germany declined 1.2% year-over-year in January. Spain's current account surplus narrowed to EUR 0.73 billion in December from EUR 2.2 billion in the year-ago month, while consumer prices came in flat year-over-year in February.

Economics

The US goods trade deficit increased to $83.74 billion in January from $83.19 billion in the earlier month.

Personal spending rose 2.4% in January, while the personal consumption expenditure price index rose 0.3%. Personal income climbed 10% in January.

Wholesale inventories rose 1.3% in January.

The Chicago PMI fell 4.3 points to 59.5 in February.

The final reading of University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index was revised higher to 76.8 for February versus a preliminary reading of 76.2.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m.

Data on farm prices for January will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here