Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; US Existing Home Sales Fall 7.2%

U.S. stocks opened on a mixed note this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 150 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.47% to 34,318.14 while the NASDAQ rose 0.22% to 13,645.00. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.24% to 4,401.10.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed by 0.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included StoneCo Ltd. STNE, up 40% and TROOPS, Inc. TROO up 19%.

In trading on Friday, financials shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

U.S. existing home sales dropped by 7.2% to an annualized rate of 6.02 million in February. It is the lowest reading in six months.

Equities Trading UP

Kidpik Corp. PIK shares shot up 57% to $7.46 on continued momentum following the company's recently-announced partnership with The Walt Disney Co.

Shares of StoneCo Ltd. STNE got a boost, shooting 41% to $13.55 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

DiDi Global Inc. DIDI shares were also up, gaining 22% to $3.1180.

Equities Trading DOWN

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. AMBC shares tumbled 24% to $9.01. Ambac Financial's Ambac Assurance issued statement on residential mortgage-backed securities litigation.

Shares of BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. BBAI were down 19% to $6.72 after the company reported Q4 earnings results and issued FY22 sales guidance below estimates.

HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. HTGM was down, falling 13% to $1.8484. HTG Molecular Diagnostics reported a $7.5 million private placement.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $103.14, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,935.20.

Silver traded down 1.6% Friday to $25.205 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.7010.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.3%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.5%. The German DAX declined 0.8%, French CAC 40 dipped 0.9% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.3%.

The trade balance in the Eurozone swung to a deficit of €27.2 billion in January versus a €10.7 billion surplus in the year-ago period. Hourly labor costs in the Eurozone rose 1.9% year-over-year during the fourth quarter.

Italy recorded a trade deficit of EUR 5.052 billion in January versus a year-ago surplus of EUR 1.584 billion, while construction output surged 13.2% year-over-year in January.

Economics

U.S. existing home sales dropped by 7.2% to an annualized rate of 6.02 million in February. It is the lowest reading in six months.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3% for February.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin is set to speak at 12:30 p.m. ET.

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

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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Check out the full economic calendar here

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,350,880 cases with around 996,070 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,004,000 cases and 516,310 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,527,640 COVID-19 cases with 656,480 deaths. In total, there were at least 466,663,320 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,088,980 deaths.