Mid-Day Market Update: Gold Rises Over 1%; Harpoon Therapeutics Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.39% to 34,713.33 while the NASDAQ rose 1.28% to 13,789.21. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.69% to 4,221.95.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,326,410 cases with around 596,430 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 28,574,350 cases and 340,700 deaths, while Brazil reported over 16,803,470 COVID-19 cases with 469,380 deaths. In total, there were at least 172,189,880 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,702,660 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 1.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Resonant Inc. RESN, up 14%, and DocuSign, Inc. DOCU, up 15%.

In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

The US economy added 559,000 jobs in May, compared to revised 278,000 gain in April. However, analysts were expecting an addition of 650,000 jobs.

The US unemployment rate fell to 5.8% in May, the lowest since March 2020.

 

Equities Trading UP

Performant Financial Corporation PFMT shares shot up 20% to $4.92. Colliers Securities initiated coverage on Performant Financial with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $10.

Shares of Senseonics Holdings, Inc. SENS got a boost, shooting 30% to $2.6719 after the company disclosed results from a PROMISE study evaluating its Eversense CGM System for up to 180 days. The Eversense CGM is a continuous glucose monitoring device.

Cullinan Oncology, Inc. CGEM shares were also up, gaining 21% to $36.00 after the company disclosed Phase 1/2a interim data for Cullinan Pearl's CLN-081 in NSCLC EGFR Exon 20 patients. SVB Leerink maintained Cullinan Oncology with an Outperform and raised the price target from $48 to $54.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. HARP shares tumbled 24% to $15.93 after the company after the company announced interim data from the ongoing dose-escalation portion of a Phase 1/2a trial evaluating HPN424 in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

Shares of BK Technologies Corporation BKTI were down 13% to $3.4901 after the company reported a proposed public offering of common stock.

NGL Energy Partners LP NGL was down, falling 23% to $2.4150 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $69.32, while gold traded up 1.3% to $1,897.40.

Silver traded up 1.7% Friday to $27.955 while copper rose 1.3% to $4.5205.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.29%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.69% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.31%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.13%, French CAC 40 rose 0.0% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.34%.

The IHS Markit Eurozone construction PMI rose to 50.3 in May from 50.1 in April. The IHS Markit/CIPS UK construction PMI climbed to 64.2 in May, while new car registrations surged to 156,737 units in May.

French construction PMI increased to 51.1 in May from 49.8 in the earlier month, while German construction PMI slipped to 44.5 from 46.2.

Economics

The US economy added 559,000 jobs in May, compared to revised 278,000 gain in April. However, analysts were expecting an addition of 650,000 jobs. The US unemployment rate fell to 5.8% in May, the lowest since March 2020.

US factory orders fell 0.6% for April.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here