Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Falls 150 Points; Crude Oil Rises 2%

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping more than 100 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.48% to 34,749.95 while the NASDAQ fell 1.12% to 13,741.97. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.14% to 4,494.07.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 2.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Borr Drilling Limited BORR, up 13% and Ardmore Shipping Corporation ASC up 11%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell 1%.

Top Headline

US wholesale inventories rose 2.5% in February, versus analysts' expectations for a 2.1% increase.

Equities Trading UP

Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. LYRA shares shot up 18% to $5.11 as the company reported a private placement for gross proceeds of $110.5 million.

Shares of MedAvail Holdings, Inc. MDVL got a boost, shooting 61% to $2.2697 on continued strength after Ally Bridge Group on Wednesday reported in a Form 4 filing a purchase of roughly 21.176 million shares of MedAvail Holdings for an average price of $1.06 per share.

Aterian, Inc. ATER shares were also up, gaining 16% to $4.4602 amid retail investor interest on social media.

Equities Trading DOWN

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. BCRX shares tumbled 36% to $11.57 after the company paused enrollment in clinical trials with BCX9930 as it investigates elevated serum creatinine levels observed in some patients.

Shares of Sunshine Biopharma, Inc. SBFM were down 29% to $6.85 after the company announced a common stock offering of approximately 7.207 million shares.

FTC Solar, Inc. FTCI was down, falling 18% to $3.7750 after Piper Sandler downgraded the stock from Overweight to Neutral and announced a $4 price target.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $98.07, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,944.70.

Silver traded up 0.4% Friday to $24.835 while copper rose 0.5% to $4.7240.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.31%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.56%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.64%. The German DAX gained 1.46%, French CAC 40 rose 1.34% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 2.13%.

Industrial production in Spain climbed 3% year-over-year in February.

Economics

US wholesale inventories rose 2.5% in February, versus analysts' expectations for a 2.1% increase.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs climbed by 13 to 546 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,988,270 cases with around 1,011,090 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,033,060 cases and 521,600 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,094,380 COVID-19 cases with 661,030 deaths. In total, there were at least 496,735,870 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,196,240 deaths.