Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Rises 2%; Allogene Therapeutics Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.06% to 34,734.52 while the NASDAQ fell 0.25% to 14,617.60. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.08% to 4,396.09.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 44,160,450 cases with around 710,180 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,915,560 cases and 450,120 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,532,550 COVID-19 cases with 599,810 deaths. In total, there were at least 236,882,420 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,836,830 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 2.8% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Resources Corporation AREC, up 9% and APA Corporation APA up 5%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 0.6%.

Top Headline

The US economy added 194,000 jobs in September, the lowest so far this year. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting for a 500,000 gain. The US unemployment rate, however, declined to 4.8% in September from 5.2%.

 

Equities Trading UP

ChemoCentryx, Inc. CCXI shares shot up 53% to $30.06. The FDA approved ChemoCentryx’s Tavneos (avacopan) as an adjunctive treatment for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis (ANCA-associated vasculitis or ANCA vasculitis).

Shares of Aehr Test Systems AEHR got a boost, shooting 12% to $18.65. Craig-Hallum raised the price target on Aehr Test Systems to $31 from $12, implying an 86.1% upside, and reiterated a Buy.

ReShape Lifesciences Inc. RSLS shares were also up, gaining 28% to $3.1699. Maxim Group initiated coverage on Reshape Lifesciences with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $8.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. ALLO shares tumbled 43% to $13.83 after the company reported the FDA placed a hold on the company's AlloCAR T clinical trials.

Shares of Cellectis S.A. CLLS were down 18% to $9.83. Baird downgraded Cellectis from Outperform to Neutral and lowered the price target from $39 to $10.

Agile Therapeutics, Inc. AGRX was down, falling 29% to $0.6646 as the company reported pricing of $22,666,650 underwritten public offering of common stock and warrants.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $79.96, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,762.60.

Silver traded up 0.9% Friday to $22.865 while copper rose 1.1% to $4.2890.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.16%, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.01% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.16%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3%, French CAC 40 fell 0.38% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.23%.

German current account surplus shrank to EUR 11.8 billion in August from EUR 16.7 billion in the year-ago month, while trade surplus narrowed to €10.7 billion from €11.9 billion.

Economics

The US economy added 194,000 jobs in September, the lowest so far this year. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting for a 500,000 gain. The US unemployment rate, however, declined to 4.8% in September from 5.2%.

US wholesale inventories increased 1.2% to $731.1 billion in August.

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