Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Jabil Misses Q2 Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 3.29% to 21898.51 while the NASDAQ rose 3.87% to 7,480.52. The S&P also rose, gaining 3.70% to 2,572.35. South Korea confirmed a total of over 7,900 coronavirus cases, while Italy reported a total of at least 15,000 confirmed cases and 1,000 deaths. Mainland China reported 8 additional confirmed cases with 7 new deaths. In total, there are at least 134,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 4,900 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 4.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Level One Bancorp, Inc. LEVL, up 31%, and First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. FGBI, up 26%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares rose by just 1.9%.

Top Headline

Jabil Inc JBL reported weaker-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Jabil posted quarterly earnings of $0.50 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $0.64 per share. Its sales came in at $6.1 billion, versus expectations of $6.16 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation NNA shares shot up 26% to $4.16.

Shares of CorePoint Lodging Inc. CPLG got a boost, shooting 24% to $4.22 after the company reported results for its fourth quarter.

Teekay Corporation TK shares were also up, gaining 19% to $2.85.

Equities Trading DOWN

Tiziana Life Sciences PLC TLSA shares tumbled 28% to $3.80 after climbing 33.2% on Thursday.

Shares of Amyris, Inc. AMRS were down 22% to $2.08 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results.

Savara Inc. SVRA was down, falling 25% to $1.90 after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss for the fourth quarter.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 5.2% to $33.13, while gold traded down 0.9% to $1,576.40.

Silver traded down 1.6% Friday to $15.755, while copper fell 1.2% to $2.442.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 9.8% the Spanish Ibex Index rose 6.06%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 14.7% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 6%, and the French CAC 40 rose 7.1% while UK shares rose 7%.

Economics

US import prices fell 0.5% in February, versus a revised 0.1% rise in January. Export prices declined 1.1% in February.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 95.9 in March, versus a reading of 101 in the prior month.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.