Nasdaq Jumps Over 200 Points, Crude Oil Rises Sharply

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 200 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 1.02% to 32,097.43 while the NASDAQ rose 1.87% to 12,084.19. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.30% to 4,058.38.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 2.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Globalstar, Inc. GSAT, up 13% and AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC up 10%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.6%.

Top Headline

Wholesale inventories in the US rose by 0.6% from a month ago to $900.7 billion in July, versus an initial estimate of a 0.8% increase.

Equities Trading UP

• MOGU Inc. MOGU shares shot up 34% to $2.68 after the company announced a $10 million repurchase program.
• Shares of Zscaler, Inc. ZS got a boost, shooting 19% to $184.05 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued sales guidance above estimates.
• Digital Media Solutions, Inc. DMS shares were also up, gaining 77% to $2.2676 after the company received a non-binding go-private proposal from Prism Data for $2.50 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Immunocore Holdings plc IMCR shares tumbled 22% to $44.70 after the company presented its Phase 1 data for TCR therapy targeting PRAME.
• Shares of Alector, Inc. ALEC were down 12% to $9.70 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from Overweight to Equal-Weight and lowered its price target from $27 to $13.
• NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. NBY was down, falling 15% to $0.1754. NovaBay Pharmaceuticals entered into agreements for a private placement and warrant reprice transactions to raise up to $5.3 million.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.1% to $86.16, while gold traded up 0.3% at $1,725.40.

Silver traded up 1.1% to $18.65 on Friday while copper rose 0.6% to $3.5490.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.57%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.38%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.52%. The German DAX gained 1.39%, French CAC 40 rose 1.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.85%.

Industrial production in France dropped by 1.6% from a month ago in July versus a revised 1.2% increase in June, while industrial production in Spain gained by 5.3% year-over-year in July.

Economics

• Wholesale inventories in the US rose by 0.6% from a month ago to $900.7 billion in July, versus an initial estimate of a 0.8% increase.
• The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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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 96,959,160 cases with around 1,074,780 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,484,720 cases and 528,120 deaths, while France reported over 34,663,100 COVID-19 cases with 154,430 deaths. In total, there were at least 612,754,590 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,512,830 deaths.