Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; US Economy Adds 943,000 Jobs

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.37% to 35,193.61 while the NASDAQ fell 0.26% to 14,857.09. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16% to 4,436.02.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 35,440,500 cases with around 615,320 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 31,856,750 cases and 426,750 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,066,580 COVID-19 cases with 560,700 deaths. In total, there were at least 200,939,770 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,267,850 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 1.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Robinhood Markets, Inc. HOOD, up 13% and HCI Group, Inc. HCI up 15%.

In trading on Friday, health care shares fell 0.6%.

Top Headline

The US economy added 943,000 jobs in July 2021, while the unemployment rate dropped by 0.5%, according to Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics report. That leaves the unemployment rate at 5.4%, the lowest it's been since the pandemic began in America in March 2020.

 

Equities Trading UP

Sphere 3D Corp. ANY shares shot up 29% to $ 4.4400 after the company inked an agreement with turnkey mining solutions provider Hertford Advisors Ltd to provide a six-month exclusive right to assume all of Hertford's rights to several bitcoin mining agreements.

Shares of BeyondSpring Inc. BYSI got a boost, shooting 20% to $26.04. The company recently announced results from its DUBLIN-3 trial of plinabulin in combination with docetaxel for non-small cell lung cancer which showed the study met its primary endpoint.

Switch, Inc. SWCH shares were also up, gaining 20% to $24.32 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 sales results and issued strong FY21 sales guidance.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. DRNA shares tumbled 35% to $24.75 after the company announced top-line results from the PHYOX2 pivotal clinical trial of nedosiran, which is in development as a once-monthly treatment for primary hyperoxaluria. Nedosiran is Dicerna's lead GalXC RNAi therapeutic candidate. The PHYOX2 clinical trial included participants with PH subtypes 1 and 2.

Shares of Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SPPI were down 26% to $2.4093 after the company received an FDA Complete Response Letter (CRL) regarding its marketing application for Rolontis (eflapegrastim) for neutropenia (low count of a type of white blood cell) in patients receiving myelosuppressive anti-cancer drugs.

iCAD, Inc. ICAD was down, falling 25% to $11.60 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $68.72, while gold traded down 2.4% to $1,765.50.

Silver traded down 4.1% Friday to $24.250 while copper rose 0.4% to $4.3670.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.5% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.2%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 1.2%.

Payroll employment in the French private sector increased 1.2% to 19.75 million in the second quarter, while current account deficit shrank to EUR 0.5 billion in June.

Germany's industrial production dropped 1.3% in June, while house prices in the UK rose 7.6% year-over-year in July. Spain's industrial production growth dropped to 11.1% year-over-year in June versus a revised 25.0% growth in the prior month.

Economics

The US economy added 943,000 jobs in July 2021, while the unemployment rate dropped by 0.5%, according to Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics report. That leaves the unemployment rate at 5.4%, the lowest it's been since the pandemic began in America in March 2020.

US wholesale inventories rose 1.1% for June.

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 June will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET. Consumer credit is projected to increase $20.8 billion in June following a higher-than-expected increase of $35.3 billion in May.

Check out the full economic calendar here