Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Gains 140 Points; Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.40% to 35,204.21 while the NASDAQ fell 0.41% to 14,833.72. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16% to 4,435.97.

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 1.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Oportun Financial Corporation OPRT, up 14% and HCI Group, Inc. HCI up 18%.

In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary shares fell 0.7%.

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 38% to $4.75 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 Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. AUPH got a boost, shooting 24% to $14.50 after the company reported a sharp rise in Q2 sales.

Switch, Inc. SWCH shares were also up, gaining 20% to $24.42 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 27% to $27.50 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 25% to $2.4350 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. The CRL cited deficiencies related to manufacturing and indicated that a reinspection would be necessary.

iCAD, Inc. ICAD was down, falling 27% to $11.20 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $68.44, while gold traded down 2.4% to $1,765.10.

Silver traded down 3.7% Friday to $24.36 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.3430.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.01%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.48% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.11%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.04%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.53% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 1.3%.

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.

US oil rigs rose by 2 to 387 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc said.

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

Check out the full economic calendar here