Mid-Day Market Update: Citi Trends Rises After Q4 Results; Inovio Pharmaceuticals Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 2.26% to 21680.64 while the NASDAQ rose 2.22% to 7,361.97. The S&P also rose, gaining 2.25% to 2,536.54. 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 5.4% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Greene County Bancorp, Inc. GCBC, up 30%, and First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. FGBI, up 27%.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares rose by just 0.2%.

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

Citi Trends, Inc. CTRN shares shot up 29% to $15.75 after the company reported Q4 results.

Shares of CorePoint Lodging Inc. CPLG got a boost, shooting 32% to $4.50 after the company reported results for its fourth quarter.

OPKO Health, Inc. OPK shares were also up, gaining 24% to $1.755 following a 15% decline Thursday. New York Governor Cuomo said the State is contracting with the company's BioReference Laboratories unit to run 5,000 tests per day for coronavirus. Additionally, the company announced its BioReference Labs is now accepting specimens for testing coronavirus from healthcare providers throughout the US.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. BLCM shares tumbled 30% to $4.11 after reporting Q4 results.

Shares of Amyris, Inc. AMRS were down 24% to $2.02 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. INO was down, falling 25% to $7.17 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results. Piper Sandler downgraded Inovio Pharmaceuticals from Overweight to Neutral.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $32.17, 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 2.8% the Spanish Ibex Index rose 3.8%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 10.8% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 2.1%, and the French CAC 40 rose 3.4% while UK shares rose 2.5%.

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.