Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Fall; Alibaba Earnings Beat Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.64% to 24317.72 while the NASDAQ fell 0.21% to 9265.84. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.42% to 2936.06.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths around the world, reporting a total of 1,577,750 cases with around 94,720 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 310,080 COVID-19 cases with 20,040 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 326,440 confirmed cases and 3,240 deaths. In total, there were at least 5,125,610 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 333,380 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 0.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. ASPS, up 7%, and American Realty Investors, Inc. ARL, up 4%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares dipped 2.3%.

Top Headline

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd - ADR BABA reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Alibaba reported quarterly earnings of $1.30 per share on Friday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 87 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $16.144 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $15.200 billion. Domestic same-store sales slipped 5.7% during the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Digirad Corporation DRAD shares shot up 23% to $2.4862 after declining around 16% on Thursday.

Shares of Celsion Corporation CLSN got a boost, shooting 19% to $2.79 after jumping over 36% on Thursday.

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. NAVB shares were also up, gaining 100% to $2.5398 after the company announced positive preliminary results from the second interim analysis of its ongoing NAV3-31 Phase 2B study.

Equities Trading DOWN

Recon Technology, Ltd. RCON shares tumbled 44% to $2.09 after the company reported pricing of approximately $2.1 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Luckin Coffee Inc. LK were down 18% to $1.649 after dropping 30% on Thursday.

Gulf Resources, Inc. GURE was down, falling 20% to $4.33. Gulf Resources reported a Q1 loss of $0.37 on Thursday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 5.5% to $32.07, while gold traded up 0.9% to $1,737.00.

Silver traded up 0.7% Friday to $17.49, while copper fell 2.2% to $2.379.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.2%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.9%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.5%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.3% while UK shares fell 0.8%.

Economics

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