Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.48% to 32,775.57 while the NASDAQ fell 0.41% to 12,923.90. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.52% to 3,929.96.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 30,079,970 cases with around 546,820 deaths. Brazil reported over 12,320,160 COVID-19 cases with 303,460 deaths, while India confirmed a total of at least 11,846,650 cases and 160,940 deaths. In total, there were at least 125,594,890 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 2,757,090 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares rose 1.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NextDecade Corporation NEXT, up 16%, and Nordic American Tankers Limited NAT, up 13%.
In trading on Friday, communication services shares fell 1.5%.
Top Headline
Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. MSGE is acquiring MSG Networks Inc. MSGN in an all-stock, fixed exchange ratio transaction.
Equities Trading UP
Wah Fu Education Group Limited WAFU shares shot up 183% to $13.40. Chinese education stocks traded sharply higher Friday morning, potentially following the Thursday IPO of a peer in the space, Elite Education.
Shares of Ikena Oncology, Inc. IKNA got a boost, shooting 135% to $37.61 after the company priced its IPO at $16 per share.
Elite Education Group International Limited EEIQ shares were also up, gaining 358% to $18.31. The company, on Thursday, priced its 750,000 unit offering at $8 per unit.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. EDU shares tumbled 17% to $13.25. Shares of large-cap Chinese education stocks traded lower amid potential investor rotation into smaller-cap names in the sector.
Shares of Science Applications International Corporation SAIC were down 17% to $79.75 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales and issued weak FY22 EPS and sales guidance.
Vuzix Corporation VUZI was down, falling 18% to $21.56 after the company priced 4.1 million shares at $20.5 per share in a secondary public offering to raise $85 million in gross proceeds.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 4.3% to $61.09, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,729.80.
Silver traded down 0.3% Friday to $24.98 while copper rose 2% to $4.0570.
Euro zone
European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.91%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.05% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.87%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.61%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.99% and Italy’s FTSE MIB climbed 0.72%.
Retail sales in the UK rose 2.1% in February following an 8.2% decline in January. UK’s car production dropped 14% year-over-year to 105,008 units in February.
Spain's GDP came in unchanged for the fourth quarter versus a preliminary estimate of a 0.4% growth, while German Ifo Business Climate indicator increased to 96.6 in March.
Economics
US goods deficit increased to $86.7 billion in February from $84.6 billion in January.
US personal income fell 7.1% in February, while personal consumption expenditure price index rose 0.2% in February. Personal spending fell 1.0% from a month earlier for February.
US wholesale inventories rose 0.5% for February.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index was revised higher to 84.9 in March versus 76.8 in the earlier month.
The total number of active U.S. oil rigs gained by 6 to 324 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc said.
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