Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; US Adds Only 266,000 Jobs In April

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.40% to 34,686.06 while the NASDAQ rose 1.16% to 13,790.95. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.69% to 4,230.68.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,605,480 cases with around 580,060 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 21,491,590 cases and 234,080 deaths, while Brazil reported over 15,003,560 COVID-19 cases with 416,940 deaths. In total, there were at least 156,151,460 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,258,410 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares rose 1.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included iBio, Inc. IBIO, up 19%, and Epizyme, Inc. EPZM, up 21%.

In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released employment data for the month of April.

The nonfarm payroll number came in at +266,000, well worse than consensus economist expectations of +1 million. The unemployment rate increased by 0.1% to 6.1%. April’s job growth represents a sharp drop from the 770,000 jobs the economy gained in March.

 

Equities Trading UP

InnSuites Hospitality Trust IHT shares shot up 86% to $4.53.

Shares of Regional Health Properties, Inc. RHE got a boost, shooting 47% to $21.95 after dropping 23% on Thursday.

LM Funding America, Inc. LMFA shares were also up, gaining 51% to $5.72. The company announced a 1-for-5 reverse stock split effective May 7.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

ChemoCentryx, Inc. CCXI shares tumbled 61% to $10.79 after the company said the FDA's Arthritis Advisory Committee that evaluated avacopan for the treatment of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis gave a split verdict on whether the efficacy data support approval of avacopan. The committee voted 9-7 in favor of safety and 10-8 that the benefit-risk profile is adequate to support approval of avacopan at the proposed dose of 30 mg twice daily.

Shares of Centerra Gold Inc. CGAU were down 31% to $6.85.

Orphazyme A/S ORPH was down, falling 28% to $6.12 after the company announced that the ORARIALS-01 pivotal trial of arimoclomol in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) did not meet its primary and secondary endpoints.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $64.85, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,820.00.

Silver traded down 0.1% Friday to $27.465 while copper rose 2.5% to $4.7185.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.7%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.6% and the German DAX 30 gained 1.3%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.8%, French CAC 40 rose 0.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.2%.

UK’s construction PMI slipped to 61.6 in April from the previous month's level of 61.7. Spain's industrial production surged 12.4% year-over-year in March, while retail sales in Italy declined 0.1% in March. French industrial production increased 0.8% in March, while trade gap increased to EUR 6.1 billion in March from a revised EUR 5.1 billion in February.

Germany reported a current account surplus of EUR 30.2 billion in March versus a EUR 24.8 billion surplus in the year-ago month, while industrial production climbed 2.5% in March.

Economics

The nonfarm payroll number came in at +266,000, well worse than consensus economist expectations of +1 million. The unemployment rate increased by 0.1% to 6.1%.

US wholesale inventories rose 1.3% to $693.6 billion in March.

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

Data on consumer credit for March will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here