Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; US Producer Prices Rise 1% In March

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.29% to 33,487.00 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 13,748.50. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.21% to 4,097.50.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 31,003,070 cases with around 560,110 deaths. Brazil reported over 13,279,850 COVID-19 cases with 345,020 deaths, while India confirmed a total of at least 13,060,540 cases and 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 134,038,180 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 2,904,550 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares rose 0.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Celcuity Inc. CELC, up 45%, and Affimed N.V. AFMD, up 25%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

Producer prices for final demand increased 1% in March after a 0.5% rise in January. However, analysts were expecting for a 0.5% rise.

 

Equities Trading UP

Celcuity Inc. CELC shares shot up 45% to $20.76 after the company announced a worldwide licensing agreement with Pfizer to develop and commercialize gedatolisib. Separately, Celcuity reported positive preliminary data for the 103 patients enrolled in the expansion portion of an ongoing Phase 1b clinical trial evaluating gedatolisib, plus Ibrance and endocrine therapy, in ER+/HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients.

Shares of Affimed N.V. AFMD got a boost, shooting 25% to $9.89 after the company announced initial clinical data from an investigator-sponsored study evaluating cord blood-derived natural killer (cbNK) cells pre-complexed with Affimed's innate cell engager (ICE) AFM13 (CD16A/CD30).

United Time Technology Co., Ltd. UTME shares were also up, gaining 24% to $52.30 after dipping over 48% on Thursday. The company recently priced its IPO at $4 per share.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Novo Integrated Sciences, Inc. NVOS shares tumbled 24% to $2.71 after the company reported pricing of $8 million registered direct offering at $3.35 per share.

Shares of Franklin Wireless Corp. FKWL were down 24% to $13.26 after dropping 15% on Thursday. Franklin Wireless was recently informed regarding battery issues in some of its wireless hotspot devices.

Provention Bio, Inc. PRVB was down, falling 20% to $7.78 after the company said it has been notified by the FDA that it has identified deficiencies in the company's biologic license application for teplizumab for the delay or prevention of clinical type 1 diabetes. The identified deficiencies preclude discussion of labeling and post-marketing requirements/commitments at this time, the company said, citing the FDA.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $59.58, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,745.40.

Silver traded down 1.4% Friday to $25.235 while copper fell 0.5% to $4.076.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.5% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.1%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.4%.

UK’s Halifax house price index increased 6.5% year-over-year in March. Spain's industrial production fell 2.1% from a year ago in February, while industrial production in France dropped 4.7% in February.

German current account surplus shrank to EUR 18.8 billion in February from EUR 20.2 billion in the year-ago month, while trade surplus narrowed to €18.1 billion from €20.3 billion. Industrial production in Germany declined 1.6% in February.

Economics

Producer prices for final demand increased 1% in March after a 0.5% rise in January. However, analysts were expecting for a 0.5% rise.

Wholesale inventories in the US rose 0.6% in February following a 1.4% increase in January.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.

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

Check out the full economic calendar here