Dow Surges 200 Points; Agile Therapeutics Shares Slide

U.S. stocks turned higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 200 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.66% to 30,977.11 while the NASDAQ rose 0.36% to 11,068.57. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.58% to 3,807.16.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 2.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cadiz Inc. CDZI, up 7% and Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc AY up 4%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs climbed by 1 to 595 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Equities Trading UP

VerifyMe, Inc. VRME shares shot up 21% to $2.38 after the company announced liquidation of the G3 VRM Acquisition SPAC and initiated a new share repurchase program.

Shares of Coupang, Inc. CPNG got a boost, shooting 17% to $14.97 after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock from Neutral to Outperform.

Accolade, Inc. ACCD shares were also up, gaining 24% to $9.16 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Kohl's Corporation KSS shares tumbled 18% to $29.41 after the company called off discussions to sell its business to Franchise Group Inc.

Shares of Talaris Therapeutics, Inc. TALS were down 47% to $2.38. SVB Leerink downgraded Talaris Therapeutics from Outperform to Market Perform and lowered the price target from $21 to $7.

Agile Therapeutics, Inc. AGRX was down, falling 44% to $0.6519 after the company priced a 26,666,666 share common stock offering at $0.90 per share.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.5% to $108.38, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,807.70.

Silver traded down 2.7% to $19.80 on Friday while copper fell 2.5% to $3.6190.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.02%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.01% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.96%. The German DAX gained 0.23%, French CAC 40 rose 0.14% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.29%.

The S&P Global manufacturing PMI for France declined to 51.4 in June from 54.6 in the previous month, while UK manufacturing PMI dropped to a two-year low of 52.8 in June. The S&P Global Eurozone manufacturing PMI declined to 52.1 in June from 54.6 in the previous month, while Italian manufacturing PMI declined to 50.9 from 50.1.

The S&P Global/BME manufacturing PMI for Germany dropped to 52 in June from 54.8 a month ago, while Spanish manufacturing PMI dipped to 52.6 from 53.8.

Economics

The S&P Global manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 52.7 in June from a preliminary reading of 52.4.

The ISM manufacturing index fell to 53 for June from 56.1 in May. Analysts, however, were expecting a reading of 54.9.

US construction spending fell 0.1% for May, compared to analysts’ expectations for a 0.4% increase.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs climbed by 1 to 595 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 89,360,080 cases with around 1,042,670 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,471,280 cases and 525,130 deaths, while Brazil reported over 32,358,450 COVID-19 cases with 671,460 deaths. In total, there were at least 552,796,530 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,358,270 deaths.